Adjudication No. 1408 (adjudicated September 2008) [2008] APC 29

Adjudication No. 1408 (adjudicated September 2008)

The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint from the Hunter Institute of Mental Health and SANE Australia over a June 21 news feature in the Gold Coast Bulletin that examines how the judicial and mental health systems deal with mentally ill killers.

The main article cites a number of cases where killers found to be mentally ill have been released back into the community after short periods of time. It quotes relatives of victims and a policeman who are critical of the systems and believe that justice is not being done.

It cites the case of a man who killed his parents with an axe and was released into the community in eight months.

There are three sidebars with the main feature. Two are articles provided by Mindframe, which provides information on mental illness and its portrayal in the news media. One presents a survey that found 17.7 per cent of the community had mental illness at some time in the preceding 12 months. The other says the mentally ill are no more violent than the general population.

The complainants acknowledge that the issue is of public interest but say the article is inaccurate, provides no balance, sensationalises the issue and maligns people with mental illness.

They also question the objectivity of the author whose 77-year-old cousin was killed after a break-in. Charges against the man arrested for the killing have been suspended pending a decision by mental health authorities.

The newspaper says the article and quotes from the families of victims are accurate.

Though there is news merit in the subject, the Council finds that the presentation is unfair and unbalanced. The unfairness results, in part, from the placing of the author's declaration of personal interest well into the article, rather than at the start. It was also caused by the headlines The killers among us, which went too far, and Invading the top paddock, which was gratuitous, and by the lack of substantiation for the claim that pleading not guilty on the grounds of mental illness is "growing in popularity".