Adjudication No. 428 (November 1989) [1989] APC 40

ADJUDICATION No. 428 (November 1989)

The Press Council dismissed some aspects but upheld one part of a complaint by Mr George Brookes against The Examiner, Launceston.

Mr Brookes complained concerning a report in The Examiner of 15 August 1989 which referred to a meeting in South Launceston of members of the pacing and greyhound racing industries. Mr Brookes distributed a press release after the meeting, but was unhappy about The Examiner's report. In a letter to the editor, Mr Brookes said:

The press release stated:

'The meeting demanded that the Minister for Racing intervene and direct the Directorate to reduce the percentage disparity between the racing codes back to the percentage that existed BEFORE the Racing Directorate took over control of racing. The meeting demanded that the percentages be fixed so that all cedes in future will be treated equally'.

The Examiner press report said:

'The meeting demanded equal stakes percentages for the three codes.'

The press release also said:

'The meeting deplored the allocation of funds for feature races. At present galloping receives $345,000, trotting $8000 and greyhounds nothing.

'The meeting moved that this matter be attended to immediately and the allocation for feature races be on the same percentage basis as the funds allocation, when that percentage is agreed to by all forms of racing'.

The Examiner press report said:

'The meeting demanded equal allocation of feature race stakes.'

The press release also said the meeting believed that of the expected $1.8 million injection of funds the lion's share should go to the trots and greyhounds, but the Examiner's report inserted the word (galloping) in the sentence.

The gist of the newspaper's reply is that its summary was reasonable. It also states that Mr Brookes has ready access to the newspaper and that his views are frequently reported.

The Press Council believes the first two points in The Examiner report are interpretations which understandably arose from the inexplicit and wordy nature of the press release.

Inserting the word "galloping" in a later section of the report did change the intended meaning and this aspect of the complaint is upheld.