Adjudication No. 490 (March 1991) [1991] APC 25

ADJUDICATION NO. 490 (March 1991)

Dr D C Brodie complains of non factual reporting in both The Age and the Melbourne Herald in relation to the publication of differing costs associated with the bids of Melbourne and Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic Games. The Age on 19 September 1990 reported that Atlanta poured more money into its bid than did Melbourne. On the same day the Herald, on page 7, stated it cost Atlanta $7 million to win the Olympics while, on the front page, a report indicated the total cost of Melbourne's bid as $25 million. Dr Brodie holds that the general public should have factual news reports rather than apparent deliberate distortions. He believes the "matter is profoundly serious as it is an assault on truthful reporting and it involves possible denial to the public of basic freedom of the press."

The papers claim in their defences they had endeavoured to ascertain the costs of both bids. However, different accounting procedures made comparison difficult. The official Atlanta costing published by the Atlanta Organising Committee did not include all the costs met by supporting individuals and organisations. These were significant. Melbourne's costs were aggregated from documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Press Council is unable to determine the exact cost of Atlanta's bid for the Olympics or its exact relationship to the expenditure incurred by Melbourne. It does, however, feel that both papers observed the standards of a responsible press. There is no evidence whatever that either paper intended to deliberately mislead or distort.

The complaints are dismissed.