Adjudication No. 1094 (August 2000) [2000] APC 29

ADJUDICATION No. 1094 (August 2000)

The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint by Beverly and Vince Scanlan over the publication of a photograph in the Collie Mail of a wrecked motor vehicle and subsequent stories about an accident in which their 21-year-old son, Gerard, died.

The Scanlans had complained that the Collie Mail had acted insensitively by publishing a front page photograph of the vehicle and failing to heed their requests not to follow up the story with three subsequent articles. The editor of the Collie Mail responded that the paper had painstakingly gone through its actions but could not see that it had erred.

The Press Council is conscious of the considerable grief experienced by the Scanlan family and friends of the dead man. However it believes that in covering the tragic event the newspaper balanced its responsibility to respect the privacy and sensibilities of individuals with its duty to present news to its community in an honest and fair way.

The first story, headlined "Collie fatality" and accompanied by a photograph of the wrecked vehicle being towed away, appeared on the front page of the edition of Thursday 23 March 2000. It was the first day of publication for the Collie Mail, a weekly publication, after the accident which occurred early on the previous Sunday morning. The story presented the events factually and, in the view of the Press Council, without sensation, quoting local police and seeking help from anyone who might have knowledge of the vehicle's movements in the period before the crash.

The Scanlans also complained about three subsequent stories which appeared in the paper on 30 March, 6 April and 1 June. The family argued that it had requested the paper not to publish anything at all about the accident.

The Press Council regards the publication of the subsequent stories, all of which monitored the condition of Gerard's friend Teague Thomson who was seriously injured in the accident, as appropriately brief and informative. Each article focussed on the medical condition of Teague, who was himself a citizen of the small country town.

The Council has therefore dismissed the complaint because it did not believe that the paper breached either of the principles which relate to respect for privacy and lapse in taste.