Adjudication No. 1004 (November 1998) [1998] APC 50

ADJUDICATION No. 1004 (November 1998)

The main thrust of a complaint about a Daily Telegraph (Sydney) article detailing allegations against a senior NSW policewoman has been dismissed by the Australian Press Council. It has upheld one aspect of the complaint relating to a photograph used.

The article, occupying much of page 3 in the newspaper edition of 30 July this year, was headlined: "How 60 police arrested a boy washing his neighbour's car".

It reported the arrest and alleged rough handling of a 17-year-old youth by Acting Inspector Pauline Bellemore and a number of other police officers during what they wrongly took to be an attempted car theft by the youth. He was in fact preparing to wash his neighbour's car.

At the court hearing of the matter, the police dropped all charges and stated that an internal inquiry had started.

The report included a reference to Acting Inspector Bellemore having marched in the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and featured prominently a photograph of her at the Mardi Gras with her arm around another marcher.

To most aspects of this newspaper coverage, objection was taken by Officer Bellemore's sister Phillipa Bellemore. Her formal complaint to the Press Council asserted that the article was one-sided, that its reference to her sister's participation in the Mardi Gras and the use of the photograph were discriminatory and that the newspaper, by revealing the officer's place of work, placed her and other women at the station at risk.

The Press Council does not find that the report was in breach of its principles.

The newspaper was reporting an extraordinary set of events, very much of public interest and concern. The fact that the police refused to comment was hardly a reason for the newspaper suppressing the evidence before the Court and the assertions about police conduct by the boy and his parents.

As to the photograph, the Council (on a vote of 10-9) took the view that the use of the particular photo to illustrate a story to which it bore no relevance was unfair to Officer Bellemore. To that extent only the complaint is upheld.