Adjudication No. 1081 (May 2000) [2000] APC 16

ADJUDICATION No. 1081 (May 2000)

The Press Council has upheld a complaint from the Sydney Melanoma Unit against The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, over a report on a new vaccine against melanoma.

In doing so the Council draws attention to the need for care in producing reports on medical treatments, medicines, vaccines and, indeed, on all health matters. The dangers of exciting unreasonable fears or hopes are too great for anything but careful treatment.

The complainant, Professor W H McCarthy, a cancer expert at Sydney University, challenges in detail several of the statements made in The Daily Telegraph report, and says that it is misleading, inaccurate, and based on inadequate data. He suspects that it was based on a press release from the pharmaceutical company promoting the trial of the vaccine.

The paper says that its report was responsible and accurate and based on research results announced at a medical conference. The data was checked with cancer specialists.

The Council believes that the paper failed to clearly identify in the report the source of the material. The report made bold statements on several aspects of the new vaccine, known as M-VAX, and its development, but failed to attribute those statements. The words implied facts known to the reporter. The only suggestions as to source come at the end of the story, when an American researcher and a pharmaceutical company are mentioned, and even then the earlier details are not sourced to them.

The Council is in no position to judge the ultimate truth or otherwise of the claims made in the report, but it strongly believes that the nature of the source of the material should have been made completely clear.

It is important, if possible, to source the material given in reports of medical, technical and scientific developments. The reader is fully justified in asking: "Who says so?" Only thus can the reader judge the value of a report. If the reporter, or writer, is qualified in some way, the qualification should be noted in the report.

The Council recognises the difficulties faced by the media in this area, and urges careful handling of complex medical and scientific matters of wide public interest.