Adjudication No. 143 (30 September 1982) [1982] APC 23

ADJUDICATION No. 143 (30 September 1982)

By letter dated 16 July 1982, Mr Akister, Member for Monaro in the NSW Legislative Assembly, complains of a letter published in the Wyndham Observer on 6 July 1982. The letter was signed, and criticised Mr Akister for expressing support for a woodchip enterprise on the south coast, which is opposed by some environmentalists. The writer asserted (and Mr Akister stated proper public disclosure had previously been made) that Mr Akister had received a campaign contribution from the woodchip company, and he implied that Mr Akister's support for the enterprise was coloured by that circumstance. The paper has since (20 July) published a letter from Mr Akister denying any such inference, but he claims the original letter should not have been published.

The claim is clearly unsustainable. A newspaper is at liberty to publish letters from the public which discuss questions of public interest and importance, even intemperately or (as here) in terms which might attract an action for defamation. This may place the newspaper under some obligation to publish a defence if requested, or take other steps to correct misstatements of fact, but to deny the original right of the editor to choose what letters he publishes, and take whatever legal risks that involves, would undermine a most important feature of Press freedom in a democracy. There is a suggestion in the letters from Mr Akister that the letter is not genuine; the council is in no position to investigate questions of that sort.

The complaint is dismissed.