Adjudication No. 772 (January 1995) [1995] APC 2

ADJUDICATION No. 772 (January 1995)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint by the Newcastle branch of the Wilderness Society against the Newcastle Star over two articles on the forest industry.

The articles were in a supplement entitled Our Region Our Future, which also carried display advertisements from Boral Timber and NSW Forest Products Association.

The Wilderness Society complained to the Council that both articles were "advertorials" or lightly disguised advertisements, and this should have been made clear by the paper.

In reply, the Newcastle Star agreed that material for the articles was supplied by the two advertisers. The editor said, however, that they were run in the context of "good news" business stories for the region's future. An offer of publication of a critical letter had been made to the Wilderness Society, but this had not been taken up.

The Press Council has earlier stated, through a press release, its view that "advertorials" presented in the guise of news reports are misleading and a breach of good faith, but it has also ruled that supplements on special subjects and identified as such, for example computer supplements, motoring sections and real estate news, are acceptable.

The Star articles were presented as part of a clearly identified supplement on development in the paper's region.

The Council notes the Star editor asserted that the advertisements from Boral and NSW Forest Products were not contingent on the stories supplied by them being run, and that the stories themselves were culled from earlier press releases unrelated to the supplement.

The Council believes that the Wilderness Society should have taken up the paper's offer to print a letter from it.