Adjudication No. 1196 (May 2003) [2003] APC 12

Adjudication No. 1196 (May 2003)

The Australian Press Council has upheld in part a complaint against the weekly Mornington and Southern Peninsula Mail over a report in January 2003 of a decision to reject a skateboard park on the Rye foreshore.

The senior vice president of the Port Phillip Conservation Council (PPCC), Len Warfe, complained the paper's coverage of the decision by the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) was unbalanced. The PPCC opposed the siting of the skateboard park on the foreshore.

The report quoted two strong opponents of the VCAT decision rejecting the siting of the skateboard park on the foreshore, but gave only the most cursory coverage of the VCAT decision itself and did not canvass the views of supporters. Readers would not have been able to determine the reasons behind the VCAT decision from the paper's coverage. Thus the report was unbalanced and, to this extent, the complaint is upheld.

Mr Warfe also complained the paper did not publish his views in the form of a 750-word letter to the editor but instead published only a truncated version of a letter from the PPCC's president Geoffrey Goode on the topic. Mr Warfe's original letter of complaint to the editor ran to almost 1200 words.

The Press Council has long defended the rights of newspapers to edit letters for publication, as long as the meaning is not substantially changed. In this case, the Council believes Mr Goode's letter, while cut, contained the PPCC's basic position on the issue. It also notes the standing offer of the paper to run a 400-word letter from Mr Warfe on the issue, an offer rejected by him.