Adjudication No. 160 (May 1983) [1983] APC 11

ADJUDICATION No. 160 (May 1983)

The Australian Press Council has received complaints from Ms Claudia Wright about an article in The Australian on 8 December 1982, under the heading "Senators quaking at Claws".

Ms Wright lists a large number of complaints about the ten paragraph article which appeared in the newspaper's Parliamentary commentary column, View from the Gallery, after questions were asked about her by Senator Austin Lewis.

Some of the complaints were rejected as minor. The council will deal only with those relating to the description of Ms Wright as a gossip columnist, and the newspaper's failure to publish rebuttal material given in the Senate later.

Ms Wright contends she was not primarily a gossip columnist when she worked at the Melbourne Herald and certainly is not one now. The term "gossip columnist" was not mentioned in the Senate.

The newspaper defends this inclusion as being within the knowledge of the journalist who was writing a commentary piece about an event in the Senate.

The Press Council agrees that authors of bylined commentaries are entitled to wide latitude in expressing views and using their own knowledge.

The Press Council considers the most serious complaint, and the only one to be upheld, is the newspaper's failure to report any of the rebuttal material about Ms Wright given to the Senate a few days later, and in this respect the complaint is upheld.