Adjudication No. 1104 (January 2001) [2001] APC 5

Adjudication No. 1104 (January 2001)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Australian for its failure to publish a letter submitted by Nick Hobson. His letter supporting the status quo followed the publication of opinion pieces on 9 October 2000, entitled Republic a choice of two options, by Professor George Winterton, and on 10 October, entitled The republic we lost may yet become a reality, by Professor Greg Craven.

Mr Hobson claimed that there were pro-republican letters but no pro-status-quo letters published over the period 10-14 October following publication of the Winterton and Craven pieces. He noted that '...bias is not only as a result of what may be printed, said or shown. Bias can also result from what is not said and not shown!'

The Australian rejected the claim, referring to a previous Press Council ruling that there is no obligation on a newspaper to publish all letters commenting on material contained in a newspaper. It refuted bias, noting that an independent study had found that The Australian letters page had a balanced ratio of letters in the 13 weeks leading up to the 1999 referendum.

The Australian subsequently analysed the letters published in the period 10-14 October. It pointed out that several addressed the topic of the published pieces, that is, models of the Constitution and government, aside from the question of a republic or no republic. One of these took up directly the same issue as Mr Hobson opposition to the idea of a figurehead president.

The reason Mr Hobson's letter was not run, says The Australian, had nothing to do with bias but with the normal process of selection, given that the newspaper receives at least ten letters for every one it is able to publish.

Publication of letters is a matter of editorial discretion. The Australian has demonstrably published and continues to publish a range of letters on both sides of the Republican debate and on the question of the constitutional models for change that might or might not work.