Adjudication No. 46 (January 1979) [1979] APC 2

ADJUDICATION No. 46 (January 1979)

The Greek Vice-Consul in Melbourne has complained to the Australian Press Council of an article in The Toorak Times of November 22, 1978, headed "Things I Must Never Write Again".

The complaint is supported by Bishop Aristarchos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, the President of the Australian Greek Welfare Society, the President of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria, the Director of the Ministry of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs of Victoria and the Victorian Association of Polyethnic Education.

The article is a scurrilous and irresponsible attack on the Greek community in Australia. It is expressed in crude and offensive terms which not only should never be written again but should never have been written in the first place.

The Editor of the paper has not found it convenient to make any comment either by way of defence or apology for the article, and the paper must take full responsibility for it.

The Press Council condemns the article as a grossly racist and wholly discreditable production such as tends inevitably to bring the Press into disrepute. A paper which tolerates this kind of effusion in its columns fails lamentably to accept the Press Council's general principle that "the publication in a newspaper of matter disparaging or belittling persons or groups in the community by reference to their ... race, nationality ... or country of origin is a serious breach of ethical standards", and it flouts the requirement of the Code of Ethics of the Australian Journalists Association that every member "shall do his utmost to maintain full confidence in the integrity and dignity of the calling of a journalist".

The complaint is upheld and the paper is severely censured.