Adjudication No. 737 (July 1994) [1994] APC 46

ADJUDICATION No. 737 (July 1994)

After considering a complaint alleging a magazine too closely identified an organ transplant donor, the Australian Press Council urges the press to be exceptionally cautious in an area where even accidental breach of a basic right to privacy can cause unnecessary anguish to the donor's family.

The complaint, by the Silent Hearts Committee Inc., related to a story in New Idea magazine on the first Australian heart transplant patient to have a baby.

Silent Hearts, a group representing donor families, complained that some details in the story breached Press Council principles respecting the privacy and sensibilities of individuals and requiring publication of a reply when fairness so requires.

In the story, the date of the woman's heart transplant at a major Sydney hospital was published, but there were no references to the donor. New Idea said it did not want to contribute to any unnecessary distress or emotional strain and assured the complainant and the Press Council that it "will be careful to respect the feelings of donors, recipients and their families".

The Press Council accepts that there was no intention to invade the privacy of individuals or families and cannot judge whether the one reference to a date would have alerted the donor's family and caused distress and the complaint is not upheld. There are laws prohibiting such identification and the Silent Hearts Committee disagrees with advice from other organisations in the field that reference to "months" or "seasons" goes far enough. It is an issue the Press Council has canvassed in its own publications and will continue to do so.

As in many issues involving potential conflicts between the public's right to know, the right to privacy and the duty of newspapers to publicise initiatives (like the need for organ donors) for the community's benefit, editors must have the freedom to make responsible judgments on all the facts before them within reasonable guidelines, on a story by story basis.