Adjudication No. 1147 (January 2002) [2002] APC 2

Adjudication No. 1147 (January 2002)

The Press Council has upheld in part a complaint by Anthony Janssen against The Courier-Mail, in relation to a report about a mid-air proposal of marriage to his girlfriend, Ermina Skripic.

The proposal was made over the public address system of an Ansett aircraft flying between Melbourne and Brisbane. Upon arrival, an airline public relations officer arranged for the couple to be interviewed by The Courier-Mail. The resulting article, Love-struck man flies by the seat of his pants, was clearly intended to be a "good news" story all round, accompanied by a photograph of the beaming couple and the aircraft's captain holding a bottle of champagne.

Mr Janssen, however, considered that the story was spoiled by an unnecessary emphasis on his fiancee's Bosnian heritage and migration to Australia. The article described her variously as a "Bosnian refugee", a "displaced Bosnian", and as having "denounced her war-torn former homeland", a statement which Mr Janssen disputes his fiancee ever said. Mr Janssen complained that they were both embarrassed and upset at the repercussions that such statements had on their friends and relatives - especially his fiancee's.

The offence, from their point of view, was compounded by what Mr Janssen said was the reporter's "utter disregard" for a specific request that the refugee theme not be included in the published story.

The Courier-Mail disputed this request, stating that the couple themselves had raised "the Bosnia issue", and that no undertakings had been sought, or given by the paper, to omit this theme.

The Press Council is in no position to ascertain precisely what was said, and what may or may not have been agreed, by the couple and by the reporter. However, the brief article mentioned the issue of her refugee status repeatedly, sometimes in colourful terms that the couple clearly found offensive.

In addition the Press Council notes that the complainant made at least four attempts to seek redress by phone and letter before the paper first responded two months after the original article was published.

Press Council guidelines to newspapers urge that no undue emphasis should be placed on ethnicity or national origin. In this case, the paper was entitled to judge that Ms Skripic's heritage added to the human interest of the story, but the article's repeated references to it were neither necessary nor warranted. To this extent the complaint is upheld.