Adjudication No. 703 (February 1994) [1994] APC 12

ADJUDICATION No. 703 (February 1994)

The Press Council has upheld complaints by Professor John Pigram and Mr Ian Taylor against The Daily Telegraph Mirror over articles which referred to a conference held in Cairns organised by the Royal Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation (RAIPR). Professor Pigram, who presented a paper at the conference, claimed that reports in the 13 September 1993 edition of the paper contained inaccuracies and misleading statements, were generally derogatory and hence damaging to his reputation as a committed researcher in parks management. Mr Taylor, the Executive Director of RAIPR, additionally lodged his complaints in relation to reports in the 14 September 1993 edition of the Daily Telegraph Mirror.

The complaints referred in common to an article in the 13 September 1993 edition which was headlined "$10m SPREE". The article commenced by stating that local councils were "splurging up to $10 million a year travelling the conference circuit venues around Australia, including week-long stays at luxury holiday resorts". A main thrust of the reports, including the editorial of 13 September 1993, was the size of various council delegations attending the RAIPR conference at ratepayers' expense. The editorial emphasised this point: "There seems to be no compelling reason to send more than one or two people (by a council) to such a conference". The acceptable size of a delegation may be a debatable point: nevertheless the newspaper is perfectly entitled to draw public attention to the issue.

However, in raising public awareness of councils' expenditure on conferences, the Daily Telegraph Mirror should have taken care not to attack an organisation which is genuinely engaged in organising conferences of educational value. Mr Taylor complained that references to "cruises through the Great Barrier Reef, snorkelling excursions and visits to the rainforests and local beauty spots" were denigratory of "field workshops" included in the conference programme.

Although the targets of such remarks were those delegates whose main interest in Cairns seemed to be in holidaying, the article failed to explain the true nature and value of the workshops, and implicated the Institute and its conference in the alleged misuse of public funds. This was clearly unfair, and the complaint is upheld.

In an associated matter, the Australian Press Council reiterates a point it has made several times in the past: the care newspapers must take in writing headlines. In one of several stories relating to one of the delegates, the paper used the header "MY JUNKET". In fact the story was about the delegate's denial of any junketing. Thus the headline was misleading and unfair to the delegate.