Adjudication No. 1142 (November 2001) [2001] APC 43

Adjudication No. 1142 (November 2001)

The Press Council has upheld a complaint by Robert Hannan against the Whyalla News, about the paper's editing of a letter he wrote for publication.

Mr Hannan's letters appeared regularly in the News during the first eight months of 2001. They covered different topics, but many were critical of the Whyalla City Council for a variety of what he considered to be extravagant initiatives and expenditures.

One such expenditure was on a Mayoral car. This was a controversial issue, and was raised in at least six published letters to the editor (including one of Mr Hannan's) over the three months leading up to his complaint.

On 14 August, Mr Hannan wrote another letter to the editor, half of which was devoted to criticism of the provision, at ratepayers' expense, of a car for the Mayor. However, the Whyalla News published an extract from the letter with a different focus, lamenting the passing of "old time values where it was a privilege to serve your town or city". The published extract contained no reference to the issue of the car.

Mr Hannan felt that this "totally butchered" the meaning of his letter. When he rang the editor to complain, she told him that she had been made aware by various readers that they were "sick of the Council debate on the issue", and that she believed the general public were not interested in it.

The Press Council upholds editors' right to select letters for publication, and to decide when to stop publishing correspondence on any particular topic. In addition, the Whyalla News makes it clear to its readers that it reserves the right to edit all letters. The Press Council supports this approach, as long as such editing does not change the meaning of any letter.

The Whyalla News would have been perfectly entitled to reject Mr Hannan's letter altogether, both because of its length and because of the editor's desire to close further correspondence on the issue of the mayoral car. The Press Council considers, however, that in publishing it, the paper should have made some effort to reflect its main points.