Adjudication No. 734 (June 1994) [1994] APC 43

ADJUDICATION No. 734 (June 1994)

The Press Council has upheld a complaint brought by Kenja Personal Abilities Centre (hereinafter referred to as "Kenja") against the Sunday Age in relation to an article published in the 3 April 1994 edition under the headline "Inside the cults of mind control".

Kenja's main complaints were effectively that the article was neither honest nor fair; that their letter to the editor was published in such a reduced form as to nullify the right of reply; and that no attempt was made to seek their comments before the article was published.

The validity of these complaints must be seen by reference to the nature of the published article. The newspaper argued that the article was focusing on a book "Dangerous Persuaders" by Melbourne psychologist Louise Samways. The article sought to list the techniques of "mind control" and report the book's main contention that these were a common feature of a range of diverse groups.

However, the article went beyond this: it embarked on its own independent investigation by publishing two case-studies not found in the book. One of the case-studies focused on adverse comments made by a former member of Kenja. Fairness and balanced reporting would require attempts to be made to obtain Kenja's views for contemporaneous publication. This was not the case here.

Although the newspaper subsequently published a letter from representatives of Kenja, it was cut down from approximately 280 to 70 words and was too truncated to reflect a fair response by the complainant.