Adjudication No. 859 (May 1996) [1996] APC 33

ADJUDICATION NO. 859 (May 1996)

The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint by James Bartels-Waller that a picture published in the Border Mail, Albury, on 29 January represented an extreme lapse of taste and offended individual sensibilities.

The picture showed a man stabbing an alleged thief during a riot in Haiti.

It accompanied a report saying the riot left six dead and hundreds homeless.

The Press Council's principles state that newspapers have a wide discretion in matters of taste, but this does not justify lapses so repugnant to bring the freedom of the press into disrepute or be extremely offensive to the public.

The photograph was at the upper end of graphic illustrations of violence. It was likely to offend many readers.

The Press Council believes the news report was not sufficiently important to warrant the use of such a graphic photograph.

The use of the photograph was gratuitous and breached the bounds of good taste.