Adjudication No. 606 (November 1992) [1992] APC 76

ADJUDICATION No. 606 (November 1992)

In dismissing a complaint by the Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW (EAC) against the Illawarra Mercury, the Australian Press Council points out that public authorities dealing with controversial issues must expect that often those issues generate strong opinions and that the press is entitled to reflect those opinions, as it has a duty to report the activities of the authorities.

There was no shortage of strong opinions, both quotations of the words of local public figures in news stories and the by-lined opinion of the Illawarra Mercury's editor in his regular column of comment, about issues surrounding the Cringila Community Co-operative Ltd, whose funding was withdrawn by the EAC last March.

Several of the articles dealing with incidents and issues at the Cringila Co-operative are involved in the complaint by the Chairman of the EAC, Mr Stepan Kerkyasharian, against the newspaper, but its core is the article headlined "Reign of terror at Cringila co-op", published on 2 May 1992.

It is important to understanding of the Press Council's adjudication to consider the nature of that article. It was all of the regular Saturday comment column called "FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK", clearly by-lined with the editor's name and photograph. The column does not mince words and the opening paragraphs set the tone:

"This is a story about six very frightened women.

"It is also a story about potential violence, intimidation, a hushed-up report, threats, and a spineless NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission whose executives should all be fired."

The six women referred to work for the Cringila Co-operative and the column says that its readers "would be aware of the disgraceful incident on Tuesday night of this week when a rampaging gang hijacked the annual general meeting of the Cringila co-op" to which the police were called. The column also says that "Forces close to former president Alan Kalache were pinpointed as the culprits".

Later, the column's writer asserts "From my observations, the EAC is running cap and hand with the Kalache group, to the serious detriment of the co-op and its 4000 odd clients".

There is much detail in the column and the EAC complains that most of it breached Press Council principles, including those which oblige newspapers to make fact and opinion distinguishable, take all reasonable steps to ensure the truth of its statements, to identify rumours and unconfirmed reports and to make amends "for publishing information found to be harmfully inaccurate".

It is impossible for the Press Council to rule on the truth or otherwise of all the allegations contained in the "FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK" column, and that is not its role. Central to its role are whether it was clear to readers or not that the article was comment and whether the public figures and institutions attacked in the article were given a fair opportunity for reply.

It is clear in this case that the article involved was comment and there is no question that the matters discussed, however vigorously and contentiously, were matters of considerable public interest in the newspaper's area of circulation.

On 7 May, the Illawarra Mercury did publish prominently on its letter page a reply from the EAC denying the central matters involving it in the original column. The letter was clearly headlined, "Commission denies claims".

Two days later, the by-lined "FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK" column took up the issue again under the headline "Cringila Co-op intrigues unfold". In this article, the editor says "spies" had informed him that a plan to close down the Cringila Co-op was hatched at an April meeting of a local branch of the Labor Party, the president of which was Alan Kalache, the deposed president of the co-op. As a footnote to this second column item, the editor describes the letter from the EAC as "nonsense".

The paper says it would have printed any further replies from the EAC. In the interests of open discussion and the right of readers to be informed, the Press Council encourages the use of newspaper letter pages by those who believe they have been wronged.