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Adjudication No.  824  (November 1995) [1995] APC 54

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint from E A Locs over the publication in the Cairns Post of a photograph of a fatality in a major bicycle race.

The complainant contended that to have used a picture depicting Italian cyclist Fabio Casartelli lying injured after crashing in the 1995 Tour de France, directly above an article which was predominantly concerned with descriptions of the remaining competitors paying tribute to the Casartelli, who died after the accident, was ghoulish, inappropriate, sensationalist and disrespectful.

The complainant also contended that the picture and article were at odds with their timing; the picture was of an event on 18 July, the article described events on 19 July and this time difference was not made clear by the paper when the picture and article appeared together on 20 July.

However, the complainant chose to cite complaints involving offensiveness, lack of respect for the privacy and sensibilities of individuals and bad taste.

In a letter written to the editor of The Cairns Post, the complainant criticised the paper for its news reporting in general as well as the particular article, and stated his intention to take the matter to the Press Council. There was no request for publication of the letter, nor for consultation with the editor.

In response to the complaint, the newspaper defended both the content of the picture and its timing with the article, claiming that it had not been made available to him until the day of publication, which was two days after the event. He claimed that the picture had been used extensively throughout the world, the race being an important, newsworthy sporting tradition with a world wide following.

The rarity of the tragedy and the high profile of the Tour de France meant that it was especially newsworthy. The race is also televised live, and given this context, the newspaper defended the printing of the picture.

It is not made clear by the complainant quite whose sensibilities and privacy are not being respected. Given the context of the intense media coverage of the race and its participants, it seems hard to find a breach of the Council's principles governing such matters.

Pictures of injured, disfigured or dead people appear frequently in our papers, especially when road, train or plane accidents or wars are being reported. They are justified by being newsworthy and by the fact that the public seems to expect both visual and written accounts of such events. The picture of the injured cyclist is not in itself offensive, and, although by implication, it may have offended some, it does not breach the Press Council's principle which governs matters of taste.