Adjudication No. 1101 (January 2001) [2001] APC 2

Adjudication No. 1101 (January 2001)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint brought by Tom Jensen, the Vice-President of Save Our City, against the Border Mail, Albury.

The complaint was about the failure by the Border Mail to publish a letter written by him in response to an editorial published in the 12 October 2000 edition of the paper. There was a further complaint that there were inaccuracies in a report in the 4 October 2000 edition of the Border Mail entitled "RACV freeway pledge".

In its editorial the paper commented on a controversy involving the choice between the construction of an 'internal freeway' and 'a combined option of an external freeway and second river crossing' for the city of Albury. The editorial supported the former option whilst the Save Our City supports the latter. In expanding its support, the paper criticised the costings of the second option by the Save Our City as having been "severely discredited". Furthermore, it said that the new costings released by the NSW Roads Minister flew "in the face of Save Our City vice-president Mr Tom Jensen's estimates".

The complainant sent a letter to the editor claiming that the editorial "quoted incorrect and outdated figures" but the letter was not published. The newspaper, however, did publish a letter from the Save Our City President in almost exactly the same words as Mr Jensen's letter. In any case, it also published the complainant's views in a news article on the same day the editorial appeared. The matter of which option should be supported has been a matter of on-going controversy. The paper provided evidence that in its coverage of the controversy it had given ample opportunity to Save Our City to present its side of the controversy.

In the article "RACV freeway pledge", the first paragraph stated that "The RACV has pledged to back the political party which commits to the completion of Albury's internal freeway as part of a $3 billion project connecting the State's major motorways". The article also reported various statements made by Ken Ogden, the RACV's chief manager of public policy. The complainant secured a letter from Dr Ogden in which he said that the statement in the first paragraph was "a serious misquote" of his comments to the reporter and "a misrepresentation of RACV's position".

However, the RACV had previously expressed its support for the internal bypass, and for the political "party or parties which adopt [the Road Infrastructure Vision]." The Press Council believes the Border Mail's report reasonably reflected this position.