Adjudication No. 580 (July 1992) [1992] APC 50

ADJUDICATION No. 580 (July 1992)

The Australian Press Council has ruled that the long-established media practice of dropping Mr, Ms, Miss, Sir and other honorifics of accused people in reports of non-civil court cases is not a breach of its principles.

It did so in dismissing a complaint from Dr Nils Korner against The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald for following this practice.

In his complaint Dr Korner cites both papers' reporting of "the Bjelke-Petersen trial" to illustrate the prejudicial implication in the non-use of honorifics.

"This practice is manifestly unfair," says Dr Korner, "because it tends to tilt the reader's opinion towards the belief that the accused must be a bad lot since he is not referred to according to the normal dictates of polite society."

Replying on behalf of The Australian, News Limited makes the point that newspaper reports reflect accurately the nature of criminal trials, with the accused usually confined to the dock.

News Limited says: "The omission of the honorific in media reports may well seem to separate the accused from the rest of those concerned, but if newspaper readers were able to be present in court, as is their right, the separation would be more pronounced.

"In other words, this practice in court reporting is merely a mirror of the proceedings themselves. It does no more to remove the presumption of innocence than the custom of placing the defendant in the dock."

Both the Sydney Morning Herald and News Limited point to the dropping of honorifics in other newspaper reports and commentaries.

The Herald says: "Such deletion (of the honorific of the accused) is no more prejudicial than is the deletion of the honorific in a feature article about politicians where the principals are referred to as Keating, Hewson and Fischer; in a review of a Farnham concert; in the CBD column where Bond, Skase and Murdoch make frequent appearances; or in a cricket match report where references to Border, Jones or Marsh are common."

The Press Council points that there may be some distortion of the right of the accused to be presumed innocent by the use of surname alone in court reports. However, that practice is no more than a reflection of the law process itself.

Almost all, but not all, newspapers use the surname formula. The Council does not consider it a breach of its principles.