Adjudication No. 530 (November 1991) [1991] APC 64

Adjudication No. 530 (November 1991)

The Press Council has dismissed complaints by the Clerk of the Senate, Mr Harry Evans against the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sunday Telegraph.

The complaints concern the paper's coverage of a series of events involving a Senate official and the former secretary of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority, Mr Leanne Craze.

Ms Craze resigned in February 1991, claiming the Clerk-Assistant (Committees) in the Senate, Mr Peter O'Keefe, had pressured her to divulge sensitive NCA Committee correspondence without telling the MPs on the Committee.

Her allegations became the subject of an inquiry initiated by Mr Evans, and conducted (to the concern of some Committee members) by a private lawyer.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported these events over three articles in February, March and May; the Sunday Telegraph outlined them in a single article in March, in its "Canberra Observed" column.

Mr Evans complains that both papers failed to complete their coverage of the story by not publishing a news release issued on 17 June by the president of the Senate, Senator Kerry Sibraa, which contained the results of the inquiry. In essence, these were that there was no evidence to substantiate Ms Craze's allegations, but that the difference between her and her supervisor were based on different perceptions of events.

Mr Evans says that the non publication of the news release was due to the paper's unwillingness to "ruin a sensational story" - an attitude which he fond unprofessional and unfair. However, neither he nor Mr O'Keefe appears to have made any effort to contact the editors or journalists concerned to draw their attention to the press release.

The Sydney Morning Herald states that it was unaware of Senator Sibraa's news release until the document was drawn to its attention by Mr Evans' complaint to the Press Council. Once this had occurred, it promptly published the contents of the news release.

The Sunday Telegraph also says it did not see the release and became aware of it only when the Herald reported it on 19 July, after hearing from the Press Council. The Sunday Telegraph considered this report detracted from the newsworthiness of the release in its own columns, and decided not to pursue it at that stage, pending any further Parliamentary response to the affair.

Mr Evans finds it incredible that either paper could have failed to be aware of the consequences of the inquiry, and regards their not publishing Senator Sibraa's statement as symptomatic of "appalling standards of journalism."

The Press Council disagrees, and was given no evidence to support the notion that either paper deliberately ignored the statement, or was determined "not to allow the facts to destroy a juice story".

The Sydney Morning Herald says it responded as soon as it knew of the release, and the Sunday Telegraph, having originally published one article on the matter three months previously, made e legitimate decision about the newsworthiness of the Sibraa statement.