Adjudication No. 1194 (May 2003) [2003] APC 10

Adjudication No. 1194 (May 2003)

The Australian Press Council has, by a narrow majority, dismissed a complaint against The Mount Barker Courier concerning the editing of a letter from Donald Richardson.

Mr Richardson complained that his letter to the editor was a balanced discussion of the issues arising from the local council's investigation into the pedestrian traffic between busy Gawler Street and the new theatre development. Of his original 16 sentences, however, only the first two were printed. Mr Richardson considers this a 'travesty' of what he wrote. He asked the paper to publish the full letter in the following edition.

The editor of The Mount Barker Courier, Ian Osterman, replied that the tenor of Mr Richardson's letter was "highly critical" of the local council and that this was the intention of his letter rather than pedestrian safety.

The Press Council considers that the complainant's letter has two objectives: first, to express his opinion that the local council's decision on the issue was inept, as had been previous decisions to other issues, and second to offer an alternative solution on the issue of safety.

Of the complainant's two objectives, the first was represented fairly in the edited version. The second objective was completely removed at the editor's discretion. The Council believes the paper could well ask the complainant to put his safety proposal in another letter within the 200-word limit.