Adjudication No. 1461 (adjudicated July 2010) [2010] APC 11

Adjudication No. 1461 (adjudicated July 2010)

The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint about a report in The Age on 4 February 2010 of a meeting between Lord Christopher Monckton, a leading "climate change sceptic", and the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott. In its report, "Mad Monk" meets Monckton, the newspaper published a photograph of the upper half of Lord Monckton's face against a plain dark background.

Kathleen O'Connor has complained that the photograph places unnecessary emphasis on Lord Monckton's eyes. According to Ms O'Connor, Lord Monckton "suffers from Graves' disease which can lead to protruding eyes". The complainant suggests the photograph is specifically designed to mock and denigrate Lord Monckton, believing that it was "specifically chosen to form an adverse opinion about the person before the article is read." She wrote a letter to the newspaper for publication in response to the image. Her letter on the matter was not published.

The paper responded to the complaint by rejecting the assertion that that the image was "specifically designed to mock and denigrate" Lord Monckton. It also stated that a small number of letters criticising the use of the photograph had been received, including Ms O'Connor's, and one of these letters was published on 5 February 2010. The paper maintained that the photograph of Lord Monckton showed "his eyes in stark relief, but it was no more than a photograph of the man's face". The newspaper denied that it would ever "seek to mock or denigrate someone on the basis of their looks or disability".

The Council considers that the photograph was striking but did not place gratuitous emphasis on a symptom of Lord Monckton's medical condition. The headline was acceptable as a tongue-in-cheek headline playing upon the men's nickname and name respectively. Accordingly, the complaint is dismissed.