Adjudication No. 79 (March 1980) [1980] APC 5

ADJUDICATION No. 79 (March 1980)

The Public Service Association of New South Wales has complained to the Australian Press Council of a series of articles headed "Inside the Public Service" which appeared in The Sun newspaper in October, 1979.

The complaint is that the style of the allegations in the articles was rather exaggerated, and that a letter to the editor seeking to put alternative or complementary views was not acknowledged or published.

The Association has not submitted any material from which it can be decided whether the allegations were written in an exaggerated style. As for the letter to the editor, the council has before it an admission by the editor that it is a little difficult to say now precisely why the letter was not published. It was a proper and moderately expressed letter. It is elementary that a newspaper should be meticulous to ensure that where an institution or person is criticised, as the public service clearly was in this instance, a reasonable defence of it should be promptly published with adequate prominence.

The Sun in this case failed in its moral obligation to see that both sides received fair publicity. The complaint is upheld.