Adjudication No. 302 (October 1986) [1986] APC 38

ADJUDICATION No. 302 (October 1986)

The Chairman of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW, Dr Totaro, has informed the Press Council that the Commission has received several expressions of concern about articles which appeared in The Sun-Herald on July 13 and 20. The articles dealt with conflict between Lebanese and Vietnamese youths in certain areas.

Dr Totaro criticises the headings under which the articles appeared, "Race hate grips Bankstown" and "War in the West" and asks for this Council's support in stressing the need for the media to refrain from sensationalism which could result in creating unwanted divisions in our society. While the Council agrees with the desirability of the Press acting in the way advocated by Dr Totaro, it is not always easy to agree on what this means in practice, and in particular on the reconciliation of a proper sensitivity to racial issues with the duty of the press to inform the public as to what is happening in relation to important social problems.

It is not disputed that incidents on which the stories were based actually occurred - in one case rival Asian and Middle Eastern gangs pulled out knives and clubs and fought in the middle of a shopping mall, in the other a Lebanese youth was stabbed in the stomach by a Vietnamese youth.

The stories were accompanied by background interviews from a variety of people which made it plain that the two incidents were not isolated acts, but symptoms of major underlying problems. Different people gave different views of the problems and the articles could not be said to be designed to incite or stimulate racial conflict. The only question is whether the headlines are objectionable as unsupported by the stories, or racially inflammatory, or distorting of the news.

The headlines are certainly dramatic and one can sympathise with those who might take the view that more sober headlines were to be preferred. But the paper was reporting dramatic events and important issues which should be brought forcibly to public opinion. The stories did support a claim of gang warfare and there was evidence of very strong and violent antagonism, along racial lines, between some Lebanese and some Vietnamese youths. While stressing the need for papers to be sensitive to racial issues and avoid fuelling racial conflict, the Council does not consider that the headlines in question exceeded acceptable limits.