Adjudication No. 1033 (June 1999) [1999] APC 27

ADJUDICATION No. 1033 (June 1999)

The Australian Press Council has upheld in part a complaint against The Sun-Herald by Associate Professor Susan Hayes, who is head of Sydney University's Department of Behavioural Science and Medicine.

Prof Hayes complained that an article in the newspaper's edition of 2 May this year seriously harmed her professional standing and reputation by implying that she had revealed confidential information.

The article was about the much-publicised stalking case which involved Catherine McClements, star of the TV series `Water Rats', being harassed for two years by an obsessed young woman named Jodie Filetti.

Ms Filetti had been examined by Prof Hayes, who wrote a psychological report for the benefit of the Magistrate's Court hearing charges against the stalker.

The Sun-Herald article quoted freely from this report which contained many details of Ms Filetti's obsessive behaviour and was handed to a journalist by court staff as part of a file.

The Press Council agrees with Prof Hayes that the article failed to make clear that she had not volunteered the information directly to the journalists involved, but that it had been obtained from the court file.

Despite an approach from Prof Hayes, the newspaper did not subsequently provide an adequate clarification of the fact that she had not directly supplied the information to the newspaper. To this extent, the complaint is upheld