Adjudication No. 1048 (August 1999) [1999] APC 42

ADJUDICATION No. 1048 (August 1999)

The Press Council has upheld one of a number of complaints made by Ken Smith MP against the South Gippsland Sentinel-Times.

That complaint concerned his being deleted from a photograph which was published in the Sentinel-Times on 10 March 1999.

The photograph depicted two Newhaven Yacht Squadron officials after being presented with a Victorian flag. Whilst the caption beneath the photograph acknowledged that Mr Smith had provided the flag, his image had been removed from the picture.

In a letter to the Press Council almost four months later, the managing director of the Sentinel-Times, Noel Ladgrove, acknowledged that Mr Smith's image had been removed by management - not by the editor - and that management was unaware of any Press Council guidelines on the alteration of photos.

In a general press release dated June 1998 the Press Council said:

The Council believes that a publication that uses a significantly altered picture that purports to illustrate the news should disclose in the picture caption or in a prominent position the fact of that alteration. The form of the disclosure can be left to the ... publication to determine but it should be sufficient to bring the fact of the alteration to the notice of readers.

The Council believes a notation ... which accurately describes the significant alteration of a picture ... would normally be sufficient for a newspaper to meet its ethical requirements.

The newspaper was obviously in breach of the guideline by removing Mr Smith's image from the photograph without disclosing that fact to its readers.

As to Mr Smith's more generalised complaints that the paper has acted "unprofessionally" towards him and failed properly to report his involvement in significant community affairs, the Council had been provided with a large number of articles from a newspaper which detail Mr Smith's involvement in a variety of community affairs. Additionally, the newspaper, in its response to the Council, said: "Management was becoming concerned at the number of times Mr Smith was appearing in the paper, and the fact that the newspaper might be viewed as biased towards him". Whilst Mr Smith may not be getting the amount of publicity he would like, the Council cannot find any basis for the allegation that the newspaper is biased against him. These complaints are dismissed.