Adjudication No. 577 (July 1992) [1992] APC 47

ADJUDICATION No. 577 (July 1992)

Newspapers have to accept responsibility for what is published in their columns, irrespective of the reasons for distorted stories being printed, the Australian Press Council ruled.

For this reason, the Press Council upheld a complaint about a headline and story published in the 10 May 1992 issue of the Adelaide Sunday Mail about the reaction of South Australian primary school children to the Australian flag controversy.

Mr Keith Hall complained that the headline, "Leave our flag alone, kids warn" and the selection of opinions quoted in the body of the story would give a "completely false" impression to most people reading the page That most primary school children supported retention of the existing flag.

The Press Council agrees, but does note the Sunday Mail published a letter in the next issue along the lines of Mr Hall's complaint.

The newspaper, however, says it "stands by" the headline and story, noting and regretting that "several paragraphs were imprudently cut from the story by a sub-editor".

Only in one paragraph, halfway through the printed version of the story, is the fact revealed that, in contrast to the headline, the majority of the children's letters favoured a change in the flag.

The bulk of the story was given over to quotations from letters supporting the headline's assertion that "kids" were "warning" the Prime Minister to leave the flag alone.

Four new flag designs submitted by children were published on the page. That could well have created better balance had the eye-catching headline not been such a serious distortion of the facts in the story.