Adjudication No. 424 (November 1989) [1989] APC 37

ADJUDICATION No. 424 (November 1989)

The Press Council rejects a complaint from Mr John Bennett, President of the Australian Civil Liberties Union, that the Sydney Morning Herald had failed to give him the right of reply to an article by Damian Grace.

The Press Council agrees with the SMH that Mr Bennett's view that the Holocaust has been exaggerated had been adequately canvassed in the Grace article.

Mr Bennett complains to the Australian Press Council concerning a comment entitled "There are lies, damned lies and hogwash" by Damian Grace in the Sydney Morning Herald on 25 July 1989, and says that he was denied a right of reply.

In that article, Mr Grace discusses publications from the Australian Civil Liberties Union, which he says should not be confused with what he describes as the better known and very worthy Council for Civil Liberties. He says that the ACLU is not "your average civil liberties organisation": it depicts the recent immigration controversy as a fiddle on the public by the virtual media monopoly. Mr Grace says the ACLU denies that it is anti-Semitic, but it deplores the alleged influence of Zionism on Australia's media.

He also says the ACLU argues that the Holocaust has been deliberately exaggerated to encourage sympathy for Israel and that it has information "refuting those claims, including an unrefuted report ... which indicates the 'gas chambers' at Auschwitz could not have been used to 'gas' anyone with Zyklon B".

The concluding objection by Damian Grace was about its name: "for the ACLU to cloak its views in the mantle of civil liberties is then a most uncivil liberty indeed: more like semantic piracy."

Mr Bennett submitted a letter for publication by the Herald in which he cites certain authors who he says support the ACLU and also a report by an American engineer concerning the gas chambers. He later offered to delete the part of his letter which replied to the objection about the ACLU name.

It therefore appeared Mr Bennett was not so much seeking to defend his organisation, but wished rather to continue to debate the veracity of the generally accepted view of the Holocaust.

However, the Herald Letters Editor rejected the letter on the grounds that the ACLU's views had been stated clearly in the article and the letter merely expanded on those views.

The Council accepts that the Letters Editor's decision was made in good faith. The views that the Holocaust either did not occur, or has been exaggerated, have been reported previously in the media and it could not be said that the Australian public has been denied access to that point of view.