Adjudication No. 897 (November 1996) [1996] APC 71

ADJUDICATION No. 897 (November 1996)

The Australian Press Council has upheld a broad-based complaint against the Tully Times of Queensland. The complainants are Pius Sabag, a horticultural farmer of Jarra Creek, and his wife Cynthia. They are aggrieved by an article in the Tully Times about a court appearance by Mr Sabag.

The paper's court report, in the opinion of the Press Council, got just about everything wrong that was possible to get wrong. It then refused to print a correction.

No reporter from the newspaper attended the court hearing - a fact made apparent by the paper's extraordinary account.

Mr Sabag had been arrested by an armed policeman while firing a rifle on his own property. Environmentalist Sabag dislikes aerial spraying - and at the time of his arrest there was a crop-spraying aircraft in the vicinity.

Mr Sabag came to trial before a jury in the Supreme Court. The Tully Times reported his appearance as being in the Cairns Magistrates Court.

He was originally charged with attempted murder, but the prosecution dropped the charge to one of endangering the safety of an aircraft. The Tully Times reported that the reduction of the charge followed "plea bargaining". The Press Council was told no such "plea bargaining" had occurred.

The jury acquitted Mr Sabag. The newspaper failed to mention this in its "court report".

The newspaper said that Mr Sabag claimed he was shooting crested hawks "which were preying on his prized bantam chickens". According to the Sabags' submission to the Press Council what he said was that he was shooting to scare hawks.