Adjudication No. 429 (January 1990) [1990] APC 1

ADJUDICATION No. 429 (January 1990)

The Australian Press Council upheld two complaints by The New South Wales State Coroner against the Sydney Morning Herald relating to inaccurate and misleading headlines.

In the first, The Herald used the heading "Unqualified coroner conducted 400 inquests" above a report on the previous day's events at the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

The report included evidence by the Grafton Coroner, Mr James Maguire, that among other things he left school after Year 10, did not hold qualifications in law or coronial procedure and had conducted 400 inquests over 20 years. The Herald's report of the evidence was accurate but the heading gave the impression he was unfit for the position of coroner and this would have caused distress to him and alarm in the community. The newspaper later published a letter explaining there were no formal qualifications required for non-metropolitan coroners in NSW.

Coroner Maguire therefore could not be described as unqualified to be a coroner.

In the second complaint, the Herald used the headline "Stop this carnage: Coroner's outrage" over a story reporting an interview with the State Coroner, Mr K M Waller, following a multi-fatal crash between a bus and truck near Grafton.

Again, the Herald's report was accurate in relaying what the coroner said, and it is true, as the paper says, that the heading was not in quotation marks.

But in the Press Council's view, a reasonable reader would assume from the heading that the coroner was "outraged" and had called to "stop this carnage". He said neither and rightly complains that the headline is inaccurate, hyperbolic and misleading.

The Coroner makes the valid point that it would be improper for him to be denouncing people and claiming outrage before he had heard a word of actual evidence.