Adjudication No. 1005 (November 1998) [1998] APC 51

ADJUDICATION No. 1005 (November 1998)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, by the Director of Tamair Airlines, Paul Bredereck. The complaint concerned a Telegraph article about Tamair continuing to fly an allegedly defective aircraft for some time before the airline ceased operations.

The article quoted at length from a letter to Tamair from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). The letter was apparently obtained by the paper through a leak. It set out the reasons for CASA's decision 10 days after the aircraft's defect became known, to suspend the airline's Air Operator's Certificate because of a `serious risk to air safety'. CASA's letter of suspension was misdirected, however, finally reaching Tamair (and only then becoming effective) eleven days after it was written, and a week after the publication of the article.

Mr Bredereck contended that he had decided in any case to sell Tamair and that, coincidentally, he had voluntarily surrendered the Air Operator's Certificate on the same date that CASA had written to him. Tamair, he said, had not breached safety requirements, as it had itself decided to stop flying.

This point of view was also reported in the Telegraph. Mr Bredereck complained however, that by quoting from a leaked document which was not procedurally valid at the time of publication, the Telegraph "effectively destroyed (his) personal and company reputation in aviation circles", compromised his right of appeal against the CASA suspension, and damaged the company's commercial viability.

In rejecting the complaint, the Telegraph pointed out that it had accurately reported the contents of the CASA letter in the public interest. It regarded the service of the letter on Tamair as a "formality", and did not consider the legitimacy of CASA's concerns was reduced merely because the service had not been completed when the article was published.

The Press Council believes the article was fair and balanced, having provided Mr Bredereck with an opportunity to put his version of the events leading up to Tamair's closing of operations.

Mr Bredereck has raised concerns that the article was based on leaked documents. The Council believes that publication of leaked material can be justified where the public interest outweighs privacy or other competing ethical considerations, and that this justification is relevant in this case.