Adjudication No. 977 (June 1998) [1998] APC 23

ADJUDICATION No. 977 (June 1998)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed complaints against The Weekend Australian newspaper relating to bylined articles about the just completed Constitutional Convention in its 14-15 February 1998 issue.

While the emphasis of their complaints varies, Philip Gibson and Bill Smithies essentially complain strongly about one reference in a front page piece by Paul Kelly and also refer to another front page report, on the same day, by Mike Steketee, whose byline describes him as the national affairs editor.

The cause for contention is Kelly's second sentence: "The central purpose of the referendum announced yesterday by John Howard is to replace the Queen and entrench forever an Australian head of State."

The complainants argue that replacing the Queen and entrenching forever an Australian head of state is not what the referendum is for. Their view is that it is about giving the electorate a vote on choosing whether to keep the existing Constitution or changing it to the model put up by the Constitutional Convention.

However, the Press Council and its principles clearly endorse the right of by-lined commentators to express their views freely, and colourfully if they wish, providing readers are not misled as to the facts in the process. The Paul Kelly article was so obviously an interpretation of the outcome of the Constitutional Convention by a commentator who appears so frequently in this paper that a line like "opinion" or "commentary" was unnecessary and the newspaper was fully justified in not using one. His paraphrasing of what he saw as the essential meaning of the referendum decision may not have pleased some readers, but it was a perfectly legitimate expression of opinion.