Adjudication No. 1011 (January 1999) [1999] APC 5

ADJUDICATION No. 1011 (January 1999)

A complaint against The Daily Telegraph's publication of a computer generated image portraying TV personality Jana Wendt as a TV barrel girl has been dismissed by the Australian Press Council.

The complaint came from Dr Alena Rada, President and Director of Studies of the Australian College of Applied Criminology, Behavioural and Social Studies, NSW.

The computer image, superimposing Jana Wendt's face on the "feather" costume of a barrel girl, was published on the colour cover of the Telegraph's supplement "7 days". The heading and pointer to a story inside read: "What Next? ... Jana's changing fortunes". It carried an attribution to the artist responsible for the image in small type together with the legend "Computer image".

Dr Rada complained that the image was misleading in that it could suggest Ms Wendt posed for it, and was "grossly degrading and demeaning to Ms Wendt".

The newspaper replied that the image was simply "an ironic jest", that no reader would reasonably believe Jana Wendt would become a barrel girl, that the article about her went on to spell out her credentials as a highly respected television journalist, and that the front-page image was labelled as a computer image.

The Press Council considers computer images of this kind, in common use these days in publications round the world, as being in the nature of caricatures, meant to amuse and/or provoke.

In this case, the image did not breach the Press Council principle regarding taste and was not regarded as misleading. The style of the image was such that an editor could reasonably expect a reader to recognise it for what it was.

If this had not been so, the Council would have expected the notification of its nature to be more conspicuous.