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Latest adjudications and other complaint outcomes (APC Update No 40) [2014] AUPressClUpdate 16; (2014) Australian Press Council Update 40

APC UPDATE | 29 August 2014

Summary of latest adjudication

Sharon Doyle/Bundaberg News Mail

The Press Council has considered a complaint about an article in the Bundaberg News Mail on 23 April 2014 headed “Fatal car crash a sad end to Easter”, published in print, and “Cruel carving left on tree as tragic crash is investigated”, published online. The article concerned a fatal collision between a car and tree.

The Council considered that the article, coming two days after the initial report of the accident, gave more emphasis than necessary to a police officer’s speculation about possible causes of the accident, and could have given more emphasis to the behaviour of whoever carved offensive words on the tree (which a witness described as "horrific").

The Council concluded that, despite the likely impact on the grieving family, reporting the witness’s statement, the police speculation and the words on the tree was sufficiently justified in the public interest. Accordingly, while saying the article might have been written with more sympathy for the family, the Council did not uphold the complaint.

However, the Council reiterated the need for great caution in cases of this kind to avoid causing unnecessary distress or invasion of privacy, particularly in reporting speculation about the cause of an accident. Read the full adjudication

A remedy without adjudication

A recent example of the Council helping complainants obtain a remedy without adjudication

A complaint that articles about the complainant’s business were unfairly and misleadingly based on the claims of a very few disgruntled customers and industry competitors, including the publisher.

Press Council staff contacted the publication about a number of changes to the articles which had been suggested by the complainant. The publication agreed to some of them and also agreed to add to the online versions of each article a disclosure that its parent company offers services similar to those of the complainant. The publication agreed that this would also be done in sister publications where the articles had appeared.