Adjudication No. 449 (July 1990) [1990] APC 20

ADJUDICATION No. 449 (July 1990)

The decision by the West Australian not to print one letter offered by a reader on his experiences many years ago in what was then Palestine does not in the Australia Press Council's view indicate any bias or irresponsibility on the paper's part.

Mr John Best's complaint related to a letter he wrote to the West Australian editor on 26 December 1989 in which he said he was "astonished to read the five letters from leading Jews attacking the story and pictures of Palestinians who had been ill-treated by Israelis". The earlier stories had been published on 9 December and the letters on 14 December.

In his letter, Mr Best also referred to the impressions he gained when he lived for a short time in Palestine under the British Mandate in the early forties.

The letter was not published.

After Mr Best had made a formal complaint to the Australian Press Council, the West Australian editor said that Mr Best's letter had "little value", much of it was merely opinion and it was irrelevant because it related "to events and his experience 48 years ago."

The considerable space given to essentially the Palestinians' side of the Intifada in the paper's pages and substantial space given swiftly to letters expressing a different view was reasonable and responsible. Newspapers are not obliged to provide letters' space to arguments on issues ad infinitum when they have already provided balanced coverage. The complaint is dismissed.