Adjudication No. 1341 (adjudicated December 2006) [2006] APC 35

Adjudication No. 1341 (adjudicated December 2006)

The Australian Press Council has upheld the main thrust of a complaint from Shane Knight over an article titled The Lost Daughter in New Idea on 19 August 2006. The article discussed the death and its aftermath of Larry Knight, who was killed in the Beaconsfield mine disaster, totally from the perspective of his daughter Lauren Kielmann. The article followed two months after an earlier article in the magazine, Losing Larry, told from the Knight family's perspective, which the family saw as a one-off attempt to finalise the media's interest in it.

The August article discussed a number of matters, including criticisms expressed by Lauren of obviously sensitive matters such as her belief that, particularly compared to Larry's wife, she was not receiving a proper disbursement of money from donations and the Beaconsfield fund and her belief that the rest of the family had not properly involved her in her father's funeral arrangements.

The complainant, a brother of the deceased miner, asserts that the magazine, in simply reporting the views of Lauren, had failed to check the accuracy of the article before its publication, despite being warned that it might be about to publish inaccurate information. The magazine did not take up the opportunity to check the material independently.

Of the issues raised by the complainant, only one (the relatively minor matter of an incorrect caption on a photograph) was conceded by the magazine. It has now, belatedly, corrected that error.

Another issue was the re-use of a different photo. The Council was not in a position to rule with any certainty the contractual position on this matter.

The magazine argued that the article clearly relied on Lauren's statements and, in any case, it had offered the family the opportunity to respond with their version of the events.

While it offered to publish a letter from the family, this would in effect provide it with a third story in what the family believed to be a one-off arrangement with the magazine.

The Press Council's principles require publications to take all reasonable steps to check the accuracy of what they report. In the light of the previous exclusive interview with the family and two requests to check with other family members the accuracy of Lauren's comments, New Idea had every opportunity to balance the follow-up article. It is regrettable that it did not take the opportunity.