Adjudication No. 1379 (adjudicated December 2007) [2007] APC 36

Adjudication No. 1379 (adjudicated December 2007)

The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint from the Albany Ratepayers and Residents Association against the Albany Advertiser over an article and editorial published on 14 June.

The page one article reported community leaders' reaction to a survey commissioned by the association on an Albany waterfront development. The editorial under a heading Damn lies and statistics again criticised the survey saying that it was flawed in both conception and analysis.

The association claimed it had been misrepresented both in the page one article and editorial. It said that the page one article reported comment from people who had not received a copy of the survey report nor had the newspaper provided a reasonable and swift opportunity for the association to respond. It also said that the editorial and its headline implied that the association had purposely set out to use statistics to make false claims, had been fraudulent and presented false results. This was not true, the association said.

In regards to the page one article the newspaper said that, prior to publication its reporter had made several attempts to obtain a copy of the full survey. This had not been provided. The article was based on material contained in a press release by the association. The article quoted a representative of the Albany Chamber of Commerce and the state Minister for Planning critical of the survey and a member of an action group who supported the survey. It included comment by the association president that the survey was the first comprehensive, statistically-valid and objective assessment of the Albany resident views.

Had the association approached the newspaper to respond to the article after publication it would have been more than welcome, the newspaper said.

The Council believes that, while the page one article does provide some balance, its headline, A new tide of anger, and its introductory paragraph "Community leaders have slammed a survey ..." go further than is justified by the contents of the article. To the extent that this misrepresents the association, the complaint about the article is upheld.

The Press Council supports newspapers' rights to express a strong opinion on matters of public interest in their editorials, but those opinions need to be firmly based on the facts. The editorial's headline and some misrepresentation of the survey's methodology and provenance have meant that the opinions in the editorial are based on false premises about the survey. For that reason this aspect of the complaint is also upheld.

Since the publication of the article and editorial, the newspaper has published letters critical of its stance but, in the Council's view, these letters do not provide sufficient balance for the misrepresentation of the association with regard to the survey.