Adjudication No. 711 (March 1994) [1994] APC 20

ADJUDICATION No. 711 (March 1994)

The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint by the Bias is Bad News Committee against The Age newspaper over a press release issued on 10 September 1993 by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC).

The complaint was made by the committee at the request of the VTHC. It arose out of a series of articles published by The Age between 11 August and 11 September 1993 dealing with criticism of the VTHC by the Federation of Industrial Manufacturing and Engineering Employees (FIMEE) and other unions.

The unions concerned claimed that the VTHC had become too political, and concerned itself too readily in matters which had little relevance to the union movement.

A news story in The Age on 9 September 1993 reported that the FIMEE had disaffiliated itself from the VTHC, accusing it of incompetence, and attacking the leadership of the council secretary, Mr John Halfpenny. A follow-up feature on 11 September summarised the dissatisfaction felt by some unions with the VTHC, and speculated on the its future.

Bias is Bad News said it had no complaint with any of these articles, all of which contained quotes from Mr Halfpenny in rebuttal of critics of the VTHC.

Its complaint was solely with The Age's failure to print in whole or in part, or to follow up, a VTHC press release of 10 September, which said that at a meeting the previous day more than 250 union delegates had unanimously rejected the FIMEE allegations, and voted in support of the VTHC's policies.

In reply, The Age said a reporter had filed a story on the meeting, but this had been cut from a larger story "for space reasons".

The Australian Press Council does not expect The Age or any newspaper necessarily to print press releases as written.

However, The Age had printed four news stories and a feature outlining the dissatisfaction of some unions with the VTHC. The fact that a sizeable meeting of union delegates had passed resolutions in support of the council was newsworthy and should not have fallen victim to a sub-editor's cut.