Adjudication No. 860 (May 1996) [1996] APC 34

ADJUDICATION NO. 860 (May 1996)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint brought by Colin Hampton against the weekly Frankston Standard over its failure to publish a story based on a press release submitted by the complainant in the edition just before the Victorian State election held on 30 March 1996.

The press release which focussed largely on the impact of the State Government's gambling policy was prepared by Mr Hampton who was the ALP candidate for Frankston East. He said it was held until the last week of the campaign for maximum impact.

Mr Hampton asserts that the newspaper had "a duty" to print the material but had chosen not to "because of political impact". The newspaper explained that by the time it had verified the figures in the press release it had missed the edition. It furthermore argues that it was for the newspaper to decide on the newsworthiness of a story.

The Press Council has previously indicated that the decision as to whether certain material is newsworthy is one which is best left to the newspaper concerned. Thus, even if the newspaper had sufficient opportunity to obtain a verification of the figures to enable the story to meet the edition deadline, it is for the newspaper to exercise the discretion whether to publish the material or not.

On this occasion the discretion was reasonably exercised.