Adjudication No. 1285 (adjudicated June 2005) [2005] APC 18

Adjudication No. 1285 (adjudciated June 2005)

In October 2004, the Australian Press Council upheld a complaint brought by an Australian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent, Tim Palmer, against the Sydney Daily Telegraph over a by-lined column dealing with the aftermath of the killing of an Australian-born 15 year old girl by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. The adjudication, No. 1257, was published by the newspaper on 21 December 2004.

On the same day as that adjudication was published, the newspaper published an article by the same columnist, Piers Akerman, entitled Assaulting freedom of speech. That article has evoked a further complaint from Mr Palmer on the ground that it 'restates a number of allegations already dealt with by the Australian Press Council in adjudication 1257'.

In the main, the Akerman article of 21 December was devoted to severe criticism of the Press Council and its handling of the earlier complaint.

The Council does not see any advantage in revisiting a matter already dealt with in its previous adjudication, which is available on the Council's website.