Adjudication No. 509 (July 1991) [1991] APC 43

Adjudication No. 509 (July 1991)

The Australian Press Council has rejected a former Noosa Shire Councillor's complaint against the Cooroy Review that it published unbalanced, derogatory and misleading articles about him.

Mr Brian Stockwell complained specifically about an article in the Review on 13 February 1991 and generally about what he saw as a campaign by Mrs Margaret Chinn, the owner of the Review and its predecessor (The Cooroy Rag), to further her political ambitions.

Mrs Chinn stood for and ultimately failed to win a council seat in March 1991 in the same division Mr Stockwell had represented for three years but for which he did not stand this year, apparently following his appointment to a position in another shire.

It is impossible for the Press Council to make a judgment about the effect of stories in the newspaper Mrs Chinn owned on the voting decisions of the residents of Cooroy.

There is nothing before the Press Council to suggest that Mrs Chinn did otherwise during the election campaign than divorce her political ambitions from her responsibilities as a newspaper proprietor and she in fact handed all editorial responsibility to an editor after she nominated for office.

As a general observation the Press Council believes that all newspaper proprietors and editors must make every effort to ensure that readers are aware of any real or potential conflict of interest when publishing material about issues, notably politics, which affect readers' vital interests and could influence their votes.

Mr Stockwell raised several detailed matters in his complaint but the central one involved news reports, editorials and letters about two council decision over development permits involving local golf courses in the community's water catchment area.

Mr Stockwell had voted against plans for the extension of an existing golf course in June 1990. Eight months later he voted for a new golf course in the same water catchment area.

In an editorial and in letters within by other citizens Mr Stockwell was in essence accused of double standards.

He complains that the paper did not emphasise that the earlier application for a golf course extension involved also construction of a service station and motel.

However, in one of several letters of Mr Stockwell's the paper printed, his point was made.

He also complained that in three years the papers owned by Mrs Chinn never approached him for comment. Newspapers have a duty to present all sides of contentious issues of concern to readers and in many circumstances that would involve editors having their reporters make reasonable efforts to ascertain views from contending public figures.

But from a reading of the material in front of it the Press Council believes that by publishing the frequent and usually vigorous letters of the complainant and the reporting of his words and actions in the local council, the Cooroy Review met its obligations to be fair.

Public figures cannot and should not expect the press to report their every word on every subject and should not expect newspapers to endorse a public figure's actions and policies.

A secondary complaint of Mr Stockwell's was a $200 readers' competition run by the Cooroy Review at the end of 1990 for The Best and The Worse person of the year.

On December 19 the paper announced that "a wide and wonderful range of nominations" had been sent in but the judges "had little trouble selecting clear-cut winners ...

" ... Clear winner of best person was Santa Claus closely followed by Cooroy identity Mrs Fox. Saddam Hussein was just as clearly the least popular although he was given a fair run for his money by those two controversial political people Paul Keating and Brian Stockwell".

Mr Stockwell considers the contest "depicts the bad taste of the editor" and said that "while an elected member expects criticism, the effect on family just before Christmas was of considerable concern".

In the vigorous world of local politics in Australia, there is always a risk chiyacking humour can offend some people, especially the targets.

The Press Council does not believe that this was a breach of any principle.