Adjudication No. 114 (October 1981) [1981] APC 27

ADJUDICATION No. 114 (October 1981)

The Australian Press Council has received a complaint from Senator Gareth Evans in relation to an article in The Mirror newspaper of August 6, 1981, headed "GUN LAWS: 2 LABOR STATES BLAMED".

The article referred to Senator Evans as having "slammed two Labor States for failing to act on uniform gun laws". It purported to support that statement by quoting Senator Evans as saying that in Queensland and Tasmania there had been no attempt to register guns or impose any restriction on them except by age, and it added that he made no direct reference to New South Wales but included all States in his criticisms. The only States with Labor governments were in fact Tasmania and New South Wales.

The article was based on a Press release issued by Senator Evans on the previous day, which had attacked government inaction on gun laws in both State and Commonwealth spheres, and particularly assigned blame to Commonwealth Ministers.

The newspaper's treatment of this news release so as to make it appear that Senator Evans had blamed the two States that had Labor governments was an inexcusable travesty of the facts.

In a long submission the Group General Manager Editorial of News Ltd dwelt upon the Federal government's lack of constitutional power to deal with the control of firearms, but that is beside the point. The only relevant matter is that the newspaper misrepresented what Senator Evans had said in his news release, and for that there can be no excuse.

The Press Council is not concerned to allocate blame amongst the members of the staff of the newspaper. What the paper did was wrong and it must accept the blame.

The complaint is upheld.