Adjudication No. 1191 (March 2003) [2003] APC 7

Adjudication No. 1191 (March 2003)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Emile Rochman about the last paragraph in a Caulfield Glen Eira Leader story of 28 October 2002, concerning the closure of the Ainslie Private Hospital. The paragraph reads, "Hospital director Emile Rochman did not respond to Leader requests for comment". The day after publication, Mr Rochman wrote to the newspaper asking when and on what telephone number the reporter had tried to contact him.

According to the newspaper's Chief of Staff Belinda Hickman, the reporter tried to contact Mr Rochman at two different telephone numbers. There was no response on one number and on the other, the reporter left a message with a woman who said she would ask Mr Rochman to return the reporter's call.

Ms Hickman says she rang Mr Rochman the following week to discuss his concerns but was told by the woman who answered the telephone that Mr Rochman did not want to take her call. Ms Hickman says she left a message requesting that Mr Rochman call her. Mr Rochman subsequently wrote to Ms Hickman saying he did not want to discuss the matter but wanted written details of how the reporter had tried to contact him.

Although not able to ascertain the precise details, the Press Council believes that the newspaper reporter made reasonable attempts to speak to Mr Rochman at the time she was writing the news story, but greater effort could have been made to get comment from Mr Rochman given that the newspaper publishes weekly.