Adjudication No. 101 (June 1981) [1981] APC 11

ADJUDICATION No. 101 (June 1981)

The Chairman of the Victoria State Opera, which held a fund-raising banquet at which the Governor-General and the Victorian Premier were guests, has complained to the Australian Press Council of headlines and a report on the front page of the issue of the Sunday Observer of 30 November 1980, and a headline and article on page 2 of the same issue, which all proclaimed that the Governor-General and the Premier could be charged with taking part in an illegal lottery because at the banquet a diamond was placed in a mango sorbet as a prize in a lucky dip. It appears that the Raffles and Bingo Permits Board of Victoria was satisfied that in fact the lottery was not illegal.

Following a complaint to the newspaper by the present complainant the paper published, but not prominently, a disclaimer of any intention to embarrass the Governor-General or the Premier.

The paper contends that it was not the province of the Victoria State Opera to complain on behalf of the Governor-General or the Premier, but anyone is at liberty to complain of unethical conduct of a newspaper.

The paper also maintains that the basis of the material it published was a Press release by a member of the Victorian Parliament, hut that is no excuse for what the paper did.

The Press Council is of opinion that the conduct of the paper in sensationally suggesting that the Governor-General and the Premier could be charged with taking part in an illegal lottery was inexcusable.

The complaint is upheld and the Sunday Observer is censured.