Adjudication No. 536 (January 1992) [1992] APC 6

Adjudication No. 536 (January 1992)

The Australian Press Council upheld a complaint by former Footscray Mayor Ron Jevic over the Western Independent's coverage of a local council election last year in its last issue prior to election day.

Cr Jevic complained of an article headlined "Independent Unity team hope to rock the Footscray boat" which occupied virtually the whole of the paper's front page in the 30 July issue.

The election was held the following Saturday and Cr Jevic points out it was closely contested between three principal groups: endorsed A.L.P. candidates, non-aligned Independent candidates and a "reform group" known as Independent Unity.

He alleged the article and accompanying photograph of Independent Unity candidate John Cumming breached Press Council principals.

The issue here is one of fairness relating to a matter of obvious public interest --- a local council election --- in the local paper's handling of the issue.

The newspaper argues that its readers have a right to "information which will educate and enlighten them as citizens of the city in which they reside", a sentiment fully endorsed by the Press Council.

On the central point of balance and fairness, the paper said it had planned to devote "up front" coverage to the three political groups in the lead up to the election.

The previous week it had published a prominent page 3 article about the longest serving non-aligned Independent councillor.

Its editor explains that in the 30 July edition, the one at issue, the paper had planned to run an article on the endorsed A.L.P. candidate but that the "interview and ultimately the article did not come to fruition", largely because the reporter involved had been "prevented from fulfilling her intentions ..." because of a personal crisis.

There was no reference to the omission of the third article or the reasons for the omission in the 30 July edition, although all of the page 1 editorial space was devoted to the Independent Unity position and a large photograph of the group's candidate. The paper says it would have published Cr Jevic's side of the story had he accepted a suggestion to write to the editor.

In this case, the point is irrelevant since the paper is a weekly and its next edition would not have been published until after the election.

The Press Council is of course sympathetic towards the journalist whose personal problems apparently led to the paper's unbalanced coverage of an important issue, but it is the paper's duty to ensure balanced coverage of important public issues; an important issue for its readership that week was obviously the imminent local election.

In this case, the newspaper failed to provide that balance.