Adjudication No. 1130 (July 2001) [2001] APC 31

Adjudication No. 1130 (July 2001)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint by the Rossarden Progress Association about a front page crime story, Tassie's Criminal Capital, in the Saturday edition of The Mercury, Hobart. The headline was, however, hyperbole.

As Treasurer and Secretary of the Rossarden Progress Association respectively, Phillip and Margaret Dennis complained that the article was "unfair and alarmist" and "contained several factual errors". They particularly objected to the heading.

The story covered the sentencing of two former Rossarden men, Michael Marlow and Shane Kelly, for the murder of Rossarden resident Tony Tanner in the town 10 years ago.

As well as reporting that all three men were known to police as part of a gang of professional thieves, burglars and standover men, the newspaper recounted several other serious crimes in the town over the last three years and quoted Launceston's Supreme Court judge, Justice Ewan Crawford, in sentencing a man last year for a string of burglaries, as describing Rossarden as "a town in which a number of well-organised criminals exist".

The Press Council notes that the newspaper published a letter to the editor on the matter from Mrs Dennis on Tuesday, 17 April, under the heading 'Safe Rossarden', following the story's appearance on Saturday, 14 April.

The Council also notes that the story, while documenting several crimes associated in some way with the town, does point out that "not everyone in Rossarden is a criminal - far from it" - and describes many of the obvious attributes of this remote little township in the Fingal Valley in north-east Tasmania.

While dismissing the complaint, the Press Council acknowledges that the Rossarden Progress Association is properly concerned with the town's reputation and desire to promote its "peaceful lifestyle in an idyllic setting".