Adjudication No. 1091 (August 2000) [2000] APC 26

ADJUDICATION No.1091 (August 2000)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Michael Kay against The Sunday Telegraph, which had described him as a "gun-toting" prison guard.

The newspaper reported on 9 April this year that Mr Kay, a senior prison officer at Parklea Prison, in Sydney's Western Suburbs, was under investigation by the Corrective Services Department for publishing prison riot pictures on a pro-gun website.

He had been ordered to remove from his personal "Gun Room" site images of prison guards using gas to suppress Parklea riots and also pictures of himself in his uniform escorting killer Archie "Mad Dog" McCafferty.

However, said the newspaper report, Mr Kay's pictures were still being published on an "unofficial" site, all but identical to his own, emanating from the United States. This site also featured Mr Kay arguing against gun laws and posing with a .357 Magnum pistol.

At issue between the department and Mr Kay were his personal rights, in accessing a website to expound his pro-gun views and use of pictures of himself in uniform and armed, and his department's right to prevent publications which it considered linked the department to websites it regarded as "inappropriate".

Mr Kay wrote a letter to the editor of The Sunday Telegraph, describing himself as secretary of the Prison Officers Pistol Club, and asserting inaccuracies in the newspaper report and denying that he had been "threatened with disciplinary action for bringing the department into disrepute".

Citing his complaints set out in this unpublished letter, Mr Kay also complained to the Press Council that the article was printed without his input, was damaging to him, and was not balanced.

The newspaper, in its response to the Press Council, sets out that the article was based on the reporter's interview of Mr Kay and on the published judgment of Mr Kay's appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

In dismissing Mr Kay's complaint, the Press Council concluded that the article was a reasonable report of a matter of public interest and that the newspaper had not treated Mr Kay unfairly.

However, given that the matter was one of public interest, the Press Council is of the view that The Sunday Telegraph might well have considered that Mr Kay's letter of response also raised matters of public interest and could have been published in some whittled down form.