Adjudication No. 904 (January 1997) [1997] APC 5

ADJUDICATION No. 904 (January 1997)

The problems, dangers and tragedy that can occur in suburban living with people under mental strain are at the core of a complaint to the Press Council against The Canberra Times. That complaint is upheld in part.

The paper published at the top of its front page a report on the problems which were allegedly being faced by people living in a street in a named Canberra suburb. The opening paragraphs reported that neighbours said that one woman had been terrorising the street, regularly breaking into houses, stealing money and making threats about a gun. They had petitioned the ACT Government against the woman, an ACT Housing tenant, middle aged and said to be a manic depressive, to no avail.

The woman was not further identified, nor was the name given of the street involved, but the house number was given, as were the numbers of three houses in a diagram which detailed some of actions attributed to the woman.

Two weeks later the woman committed suicide.

The complaint against The Canberra Times is made by the woman's mother, who claims that her daughter was on the road to recovery before reading the article. She says that the allegations against the woman were an exaggeration.

The paper pointed out that on the same day as the original story it had printed on an inside page a substantial feature under the headline "Dealing with `society's forgotten people'", canvassing the views from many sides of the question of the mentally disturbed in community life. Also the paper had reported the later suicide under the headline "A cry for help overlooked" and had run an editorial on it titled "Suburban tragedy". The paper defended itself and the Government as being `easy' targets ... neighbours had complained to the paper; the woman had not been charged with any crime, nor had she sought help for herself, nor was she in such a state that she could have been put into custody.

The paper ran several letters critical of its actions, but not one from the mother of the woman involved, who had sought anonymity.

The Press Council holds that the paper was right to report on the problems but it believes that greater efforts should have been made to keep the identity and location secret.

For this reason, the complaint is upheld.