Adjudication No. 712 (March 1994) [1994] APC 21

ADJUDICATION No. 712 March (1994)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Professor John Henningham on the failure of the Courier-Mail, Brisbane, to report on the birth last year of a weekly paid newspaper, the Brisbane Weekend Times.

Professor Henningham, Professor of Journalism at the University of Queensland, wrote to the Courier-Mail on 13 October 1993 complaining about its lack of coverage when the same event had been reported by most or all of the other major Queensland news outlets, principally television.

He also suggested the Courier-Mail's professional journalistic standards may have been compromised by the threat of commercial rivalry.

His letter was not published.

The Courier-Mail informed the Press Council that many minor newspapers had been formed in Queensland, principally in the country, inferring that therefore the establishment of the Brisbane Weekend Times did not merit space.

The Council is unable to assume that this news was suppressed by the Courier-Mail. For this to be sustained, there would have had to be an editorial direction or an agreement to this effect among the Courier-Mail staff. Neither was alleged.

The Council cannot substitute its views for the newspaper's as to whether the report was sufficiently newsworthy, nor whether Professor Henningham's succinct letter was more appropriate for publication than the other letters the Courier-Mail received.

The Council concluded there was no breach of its principles.