Adjudication No. 1254 (September 2004) [2004] APC 29

Adjudication No. 1254 (September 2004)

The Australian Press Council has upheld in part a complaint by Barry Hayes against The Advertiser, Adelaide, over a feature story, Retirement spells $14m tourism complex for Kingscote, which appeared as one in a regular series, Saturday Interview. The interview subject was Adelaide builder and wine-maker Caj Amadio.

While most of the story focused on Caj Amadio's working life as a builder and his recent plans to develop a holiday complex on Kangaroo Island, the last part of the story reported on his venture into wine-making, the eventual establishment of his Chain of Ponds winery and his move to start a vineyard on Kangaroo Island in the late 1980s.

Mr Hayes' complaint about the story centred on suggestions that Mr Amadio had launched the wine industry on the Kangaroo Island and released the first commercial wine from island grapes. Mr Hayes offered detailed information to the newspaper describing the work he and his wife had done planting vines and making wine on Kangaroo Island in the 1970s. He claimed failure to acknowledge his efforts was part of a long-running "smear campaign" against him by various parties.

The Council has no evidence of a "smear campaign" of which The Advertiser is part. Nor can it judge whether Mr Amadio, Mr Hayes or someone else pioneered wine-making on Kangaroo Island. However, given Mr Hayes' assertions of pioneer status, the newspaper could have given him the opportunity to present his claim in a letter to the editor or a follow-up article. To the extent that it did not, the complaint is upheld.