Adjudication No. 578 (July 1992) [1992] APC 48

ADJUDICATION No. 578 (July 1992)

The Australian Press Council has ruled that the identification of businessman Abe Goldberg as of Polish-Jewish origin was relevant in a Sydney Morning Herald article dealing with his leaving Australia and moving to Poland.

However, while dismissing the complaint, by Mr Jeremy Jones of Australia/Israel Publications, the Press Council urges caution in the use of ethnic-religious labels such as "Polish Jew". Both factors were relevant in the article, but Mr Jones' complaint highlights the sensitivity of such phrases, and their capacity to give gratuitous offence.

Mr Goldberg escaped Nazi persecution in Poland and emigrated to Australia. he became a successful businessman, but his Linter Group collapsed with substantial losses, mainly in borrowed funds, in 1990.

The Official receiver, who was suing him for alleged breaches of director's duties and claiming a substantial sum, wanted to subject him to a public examination in Australia. When it was suspected he had returned to Australia, a warrant was taken out for his arrest but this has since lapsed.

Mr Goldberg says that, in any event, he is available on the phone, that he is employed on a modest wage by a New York based company and that he has now resettled in Poland.

A Herald reporter located mr Goldberg at a hotel in Warsaw. Inquiries from other staff of his employer company suggested he was a business associate rather than an employee, and that he lived in California with his family, not in Poland.

The Herald reported that the president of the company was, "like Mr Goldberg, a Polish Jew". He was reported to have certified Mr Goldberg's monthly wage of $US 1929 after tax, paid in zlotys.

Mr Jones complains that the reference in the article to Mr Goldberg and his company president's origins breach one of the principles of the Council. That principle provides that "a newspaper should not, in headlines or otherwise, state the race, nationality or religious or political views of a person suspected of a crime, or arrested, charged or convicted, unless the fact is relevant".

The Herald article relates to at least two of Mr Goldberg's assertions: that he is an employee on a modest income and that he has resettled in Poland. Both are relevant to a matter of legitimate public interest, the outcome of the collapse of the Linter Group, the public examination and the recovery of the substantial deficiency by the Official Receiver.

The doubts cast on the reality of the employment contract and whether Mr Goldberg lives in Poland or the United States by staff of the employer company themselves justify investigation.

This would legitimately extend to inquiries into the personal relationship between Mr Goldberg and the man who certified his wages. That they both came from the same community is a relevant fact. Investigating whether Mr Goldberg has, in fact, resettled in Poland would justify trying to find out not only whether he and his employer are known to other inetrnational business consultants in Warsaw but equally whether he is in contact with his community in Poland.

The references to his origin are not, on their face value, made out of prejudice; they are relevant to a matter of public interest.

The complaint is dismissed.