Adjudication No. 1238 (March 2004) [2004] APC 13

Adjudication No. 1238 (March 2004)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Courier-Mail by James Hill, about what he claims is the paper's practice of confusing single-issue conservation groups such as the Wilderness Society with The Greens, a registered political party.

To support his complaint, Mr Hill cited four articles, published over several weeks in the lead-up to the recent Queensland State election.

He accused the different writers variously of inaccuracy; of misrepresenting the breadth of the Greens political platform; and of unreasonably wanting the Greens to make public the allocation of their voting preferences - an expectation incompatible, in his view, with the party's principle of "grass-roots participatory democracy".

The Courier-Mail rejected Mr Hill's claims, insisting that it consistently uses a capitalised word, 'Greens', to refer to the political party, and lower case 'green' for diverse environmental interests and in generic terms such as 'greenie'.

"It is not The Courier-Mail's responsibility", the paper said, "if a political party known as the Greens has the same name as a commonly accepted and understood term for the environment movement and various lobby groups."

Mr Hill has been a regular writer to The Courier-Mail, protesting its coverage of these matters. The paper appears to have published none of his letters, possibly because of their vitriolic and, at times, offensive references to journalists and environmental groups and, in some cases, their length.

The Press Council believes The Courier-Mail distinguished adequately between the Greens and the environmental lobby in its articles but that, in any case, Mr Hill would better achieve his aim of explaining the party's principles and policies to the public and the press by the submission of publishable letters.