Adjudication No. 1146 (January 2002) [2002] APC 1

Adjudication No. 1146 (January 2002)

In dismissing a complaint against the Central Coast Sun Weekly over claims made during the federal election campaign, the Australian Press Council notes with approval the paper's policy of insisting that its journalists "verify and cross check anything that arrives in a press release".

The Press Council regrets the tendency among political candidates and others to assume a right to have their press releases printed unquestioned. Equally, some papers and journalists have shown a tendency to print press releases virtually verbatim under pressure of deadlines.

In this case, Alasdair Munn, an independent candidate, complained about a by-lined comment column in the 1 November 2001 edition of the Central Coast Sun Weekly headlined What crisis?... .How election point scoring has turned aged care into a political football. The article questioned figures quoted in a press release distributed by the ALP candidate claiming that the area had a shortfall of 1150 aged care beds.

After interviewing officials at the "coalface" of aged care in the area, the column noted that there were only 20 people currently on waiting lists for aged care beds, and that 10 beds routinely became available each week. In the column and in later correspondence it seems clear that the much larger claim was based on statistical projections and government-planning benchmarks for aged care services. These benchmarks were not explained in the article, so that readers were faced with a confusing and contradictory range of figures on the issue.

The complainant was not mentioned in the article, but he claimed he was making aged care a feature of his own campaign and the article "created a strong bias against all candidates who have highlighted this important issue".

The Press Council has no evidence that it did any such thing. What is clear is that the newspaper carried out its responsibility to check claims and try to establish the facts on a matter of serious public interest: an important issue in an election campaign.

Mr Munn also complained that an email letter he believed he had sent to the paper was not published. It appears that the email was sent to an incorrect address.

As in the days of exclusive written postal communication, in the era of the Web people do have a responsibility to get the address right. In this case, there is no evidence that the paper would not have printed the letter and the complainant spoke to the editor shortly afterwards and failed either to discuss the letter or make a simple check that he'd got the address right.