Adjudication No. 524 (October 1991) [1991] APC 58

Adjudication No. 524 (October 1991)

The Press Council has upheld a complaint by Mr Marcel Rista that he was allowed no opportunity to reply to an article which appeared in the Perth Sunday Times - "Familiar whiff of French arrogance".

The article was a by-lined column by the former leader of the Australian Democrats, Mr Don Chipp. It began "There is only one group of people for whom I have a definite distaste ... I refer to the human products of France". Mr Chipp referred to the rapid collapse of the French before the Nazi advance in 1939; allegations of their "sticking the boots into the bleeding British" shortly after the establishment of the European Economic Community; their nuclear testing in the South Pacific; the Rainbow Warrior affair; and their fire-hosting of anti-nuclear protesters in Sydney Harbour.

In defending the article, the Sunday Times pointed out that Mr Chipp "is known for his robust views as a newspaper columnist ... and was entitled to express his views forcefully".

The Press Council accepts that Mr Chipp was entitled to express his views, and that the newspaper had the right to publish them, but notes that the views were most disparaging of the French people.

Mr Rista wrote a letter to the Sunday Times protesting about the article, and would have been satisfied by its publication. Although the paper described it as too long for publication and hardly a balanced account of the Rainbow Warrior incident, the Press Council believes that the Sunday Times should have made more effort to negotiate a letter of more suitable length with Mr Rista.