Adjudication No. 609 (January 1993) [1993] APC 1

ADJUDICATION No. 609 (January 1993)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint lodged by the Bias is Bad News Committee against the Herald-Sun.

On 30 September 1992, the Herald-Sun published a front-page article headlined "'MODEL' FIRM TURNS TO NZ". The article reported that a day earlier the Prime Minister, Mr Keating, and the then Premier of Victoria, Mrs Kirner, had toured the Amecon shipyard in Williamstown. Mr Keating was reported as having hailed Amecon as "the future of Australian manufacturing". The article then reported the Chief Executive of Amecon, Dr John White, as saying that Amecon had switched contracts from Australian companies to New Zealand. Dr White was quoted as saying, "They are sometimes a few percentage points cheaper, sometimes 5 to 10 per cent". The article also reported Dr White as saying that Australia was falling behind in competitiveness, after New Zealand's labour market reforms in which the award system was stopped and employment contracts introduced. The story was undoubtedly controversial given that the Victorian State Election was to be held on 3 October 1992. The nub of the complaint by Bias is Bad News was that "both the headline and the article [were] inaccurate and unbalanced".

The newspaper had indicated that it would consider for publication a letter from Dr White pointing out factual errors in the article. Instead Bias is Bad News sought publication by the newspaper of a letter drafted by it. Among other things, the letter referred to a radio interview in which Dr White was quoted as saying that the Herald-Sun "should be embarrassed for misquoting or failing to quote all of the facts that I explained to them".

Bias is Bad News has disputed the view that implicit in Council's principles 10 and 11 is the understanding that allegations of inaccuracy or damage to reputation should be made by the person or persons claiming to have been damaged. It submitted that the dominant consideration in the reading of the principles is the public interest. As the issue of labour market deregulation was an important issue in the Victorian State Election, it argued "that the public be informed of Dr White's view that the article and headline were inaccurate". Whether the suggested understanding is implicit in principles 10 and 11 is a matter which need not be considered in this instance. Other principles of the Council require a newspaper to present news and comment fairly and to ensure the truth of its statements.

Nevertheless, on this occasion, it is hard to see how the complainant, which was not privy to the interview by the newspaper of Dr White, could claim that the article was "a massive misrepresentation". The complainant simply relied on the subsequent radio interview of Dr White to dispute the accuracy of the story in the article. The Council is of the view that given these circumstances the newspaper was under no obligation to publish the letter submitted by the complainant.

The Council can however proceed, even though the complaint did not emanate from Dr White, to consider whether the headline itself was inaccurate. Although the headline may arguably contain an element of ambiguity and possibly an element of exaggeration, the Council is not persuaded that it represents a breach of its principles.

It does, however, note that the important fact, that Amecon was obliged to source a significant proportion of the work to New Zealand, was given only towards the end of the report.