Adjudication No. 1063 (November 1999) [1999] APC 57

ADJUDICATION No. 1063 (November 1999)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Dr Efraim Zuroff, the Director of the Israel Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, against an article that appeared on the editorial and opinion pages of the Herald-Sun on 28 July 1999 under the headline "Chase goes on, 60 years later".

Broadly stated the article dealt with some of the implications and some of the reactions to the closing down by the Federal Government of its Special Investigation Unit into war crimes.

Dr Zuroff raised a number of specific allegations about particular concerns with the wording of the article. The Council does not consider any of these a matter for censure.

Dr Zuroff also complains that the newspaper did not provide him with a reasonable and swift opportunity for a balancing response in the appropriate section of the newspaper. Dr Zuroff did in fact submit a letter for publication but it was rejected by the paper because of the attack contained therein on the original author's ethics. The paper invited Dr Zuroff to submit something for publication and this invitation was ultimately accepted by him. An article was submitted by Dr Zuroff and was referred to the op-ed pages editor who pointed out a defamation concern with a small part of it. Regrettably, the matter could not be resolved and the paper chose not to publish the article.

While the Press Council encourages the resolution of complaints by publication of a suitable reply, it recognises the right of a newspaper to decline to publish such material particularly in circumstances where the original article discloses no breach of Press Council principles.