Adjudication No. 85 (July 1980) [1980] APC 11

ADJUDICATION No. 85 (July 1980)

A complaint has been received by the Australian Press Council relating to a headline in type two inches high which appeared in the Sunday Telegraph of April 27, 1980, and read "Hostages Will Die". In smaller type above the headline were the words "Khomeini Warns US" A perusal of the body of the accompanying article reveals that the Ayatollah Khomeini had said that the hostages taken at the American Embassy in Teheran "would be killed if another rescue was tried".

The complaint is that the major headline asserting that the hostages would die, appearing as it did without qualification, should be condemned as dishonest because, as the article showed, there was no immediate threat to the lives of the hostages. It is suggested that a headline stating "Hostages May Die" was as much as the facts would have justified.

The newspaper, through its group general manager (editorial), in reply to the complainant, has made four points. First, it is said that a headline is designed to direct attention to the story and is not a precis of the story. Second, it is said that the Sunday Telegraph is a tabloid paper and such papers afford a more limited choice of words for their headlines than a broadsheet paper. Third, it is said that while the word "may" would. have been more accurate than "will" it would have left an unacceptable amount of white space at the end of the line. And fourth, it is said that "will" was justified because it is always impliedly conditional.

The Press Council is unimpressed by these attempts to excuse the falsity of the major headline. In particular it wishes to make clear that it does not accept the view that an untrue headline is ever justified by considerations of space.

The best that can be suggested in favour of the paper is that the line in smaller type at the head of the page, by using the word "warns", gives the major headline the character of a warning of future danger so that it should not be read as a statement of definite fact. The ordinary reader, however, would not be likely to make such a refined analysis of the two statements, and would be left with the impression, created so vividly by the bold type, that the hostages would certainly die. To anyone closely concerned about the fate of the hostages this would be likely to come as a shock, and to that extent it was a cruel distortion of the facts.

The complaint is upheld and the Sunday Telegraph is censured.