Adjudication No. 1387 (adjudicated March 2008) [2008] APC 8

Adjudication No. 1387 (adjudicated March 2008)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint about a feature article in the 15-16 September 2007 edition of the Weekend Australian.

The article, A matter of education, was an in-depth discussion of the results of research into Australian attitudes towards Muslim immigrants. Several specific research activities were referred to including a March 2007 weekend meeting, Australia Deliberates, at Canberra's Old Parliament House, where 329 'representative Australians' were invited to discuss the issues with experts on both sides of the debate.

The complainant, Denis McCormack, was a speaker at the meeting and was described in the article as 'Australians Against Further Immigration's Denis McCormack, an advocate for white Australia'. Mr McCormack said that both these statements were untrue. An accompanying photograph, showing Mr McCormack holding up a Union Jack, carried the caption 'No more immigration: Denis McCormack speaks at the meeting'.

The official program for the event lists Mr McCormack as an 'independent immigration researcher and co-founder of Australians Against Further Immigration and Australia First Party'.

Mr McCormack says that the newspaper took this reference to mean that he was representing AAFI and AFP at the event. He complained to the newspaper and was invited to submit a letter to the editor, an offer he declined.

The Australian said that the journalist was entitled to assert that Mr McCormack was an advocate for white Australia because of what he said at the meeting, including, "The real issue is are we giving white Australia a fair go by demographically consigning it to the scrap heap through unasked for, unnecessary, high non-European immigration".

The reference to Mr McCormack's association with AAFI is widely used, as it was in the official program. The Press Council does not believe that the newspaper violated any of its principles in its coverage of Mr McCormack's contribution to the debate and dismissed the complaint.