Adjudication No. 116 (October 1981) [1981] APC 29

ADJUDICATION No. 116 (October 1981)

Mr G. J. May has complained to the Australian Press Council of an article published in the Daily News of Murwillumbah headed "LOCALS JUST CAN'T WIN" and alleging that by contrast with the Queensland government the New South Wales government had let contracts for projects at the Murwillumbah railway station to a firm of another State.

The newspaper has explained that it based its allegation on information it had received from a spokesman for the Minister for Transport and it maintains that the company in question though registered in Queensland had its main office in Sydney. No correction was made, however, when the facts were ascertained.

The paper owed it to its readers to make a reasonable effort to correct the wrong information it had published, and its omission to do so was a bad mistake.

The complaint is upheld.