Adjudication No. 1119 (May 2001) [2001] APC 20

Adjudication No. 1119 (May 2001)

The Press Council has upheld complaints against the Cairns Post over the publication of a front-page picture of two bodies sprawled, one in a doorway of, and the other outside, an Atherton Tableland farmhouse, the result of a double shooting.

The picture was likely to disturb readers, and clearly did so; the paper later published over 30 letters of complaint, as against only one of support. The complaints to the Press Council wrote of the 'ghoulish portrayal of a tragedy' and the 'sickening visual image', of the possibility of many in Ravenshoe and Cairns knowing and being able to identify the victims, of the paper's poor taste and the 'extremely offensive and repugnant' photograph.

One of the complainants, Mayor Anne Portess, of the Herberton Shire, claimed that the family of one of the men learned of his death by being phoned by acquaintances who recognised the body from the picture.

The paper defended itself both to the Council and in its own pages: "The decision to publish was made on the basis of its newsworthiness as a dramatic representation of a horrific event that is becoming all too common in today's society. In tragic situations such as this, the media has a responsibility to the public to present the news in the most effective way possible. In doing so, of course, we run the risk of as easily being accused of self-censorship as of sensationalism."

In a previous adjudication the Press Council said: "Complaints about the publication of pictures of dead bodies present the Council with difficulties. The Council has adopted a general approach that there is a difference between photographs of the unidentified victims of foreign carnage and a front-page picture of a body in a local community where the victim is well known. Its principles do not place an absolute ban on the use that can be made of such pictures. It is a matter of balancing the use that can be made of a picture that might be considered offensive against the public interest in having the matter brought to attention."

Usually, the balance is a fine one, as it is in the Cairns Post case. Indeed, Mayor Portess was reported in the paper as saying: "These things are very much part of our lifestyle, but when it's in your own backyard it makes you acutely aware of the dangers." The paper claims it was in appreciation of these dangers that it decided to publish the picture.

Another factor intrudes: Ravenshoe is a small town, with many isolated farmhouses around it, and the community is described as close-knit. Judging by readers' letters the community's standards, if not the paper's, were breached.

The Council believes this factor tips the balance in favour of upholding the complaint.