Adjudication No. 510 (July 1991) [1991] APC 44

Adjudication No. 510 (July 1991)

Mr John Halfpenny of the Victorian Trades Hall Council complains that the Herald-Sun has not given adequate prominence to a correction of inaccuracies in an article entitled "Threat to Libs" and an editorial "The people's choice".

He says in correspondence to the Press Council: "The sole issue in dispute is whether the Herald-Sun's printing of my letter on page 14 of its newspaper constitutes adequate correction of acknowledged inaccuracies that appeared on page 3 of their newspaper and were repeated, in part, in their editorial column".

The paper stated that Mr Halfpenny had responded to the article with a letter to the editor which requested that the letter be published with editor's notes attached. The paper published Mr Halfpenny's letter and carried in the letter column an editor's note as had been requested. At the hearing the newspaper said that the article appeared in the last two editions which have a smaller readership while the letter appeared in all editions.

Mr Halfpenny's complaint rests on the view that page 3 and the editorial column are read more avidly than the letters to the editor. The Press Council principles state that published information which is found to be harmfully inaccurate should be made the subject of such prompt and appropriately prominent retraction, correction or explanation (and in proper cases apology) as will neutralise so far as possible the impression created by the inaccurate material.

The Press Council considers the newspaper would have adhered more closely to the Council's principles if the letter had been displayed with greater prominence among those letters published.

However, the Council finds there is not sufficient basis to uphold this complaint on the argument that the letter published at Mr Halfpenny's request should have been published on page 3 rather than on the newspaper's letters page.