Adjudication No. 81 (May 1980) [1980] APC 7

ADJUDICATION No. 81 (May 1980)

The Australian Press Council has received complaints from Mr John Bennett against The Bulletin, The Herald, Melbourne, and Quadrant against the non-publication of matter submitted by him, in the form (in the first two cases) of letters to the editor and (in the third case) of an article, on the controversy as to whether large numbers of Jews were killed by the Germans during World War II. The editors in the first two cases declined to publish the letters on the ground that the subject had been sufficiently covered by previously published correspondence, and the editor in the third case offered to publish selected portions of the article only, as a letter, and subsequently did so.

The council is of the opinion that the refusal of publication in the first two cases was within the scope of legitimate editorial discretion. Controversies on matters of historical fact, involving assertion and counter-assertion, must be subject to limits as to which editors must be allowed a wide judgment. Likewise, in the third case, the decision of the editor that some parts of the article were not suitable for publication even as a letter is, in the opinion of the council, well within his proper discretion.

The complaints are dismissed.