Reporting Guidelines
General Press Release No. 221 (July 1998)

One Nation Newspaper Ban Condemned

The Australian Press Council has condemned the action of Queensland MHR, Pauline Hanson, and the One Nation Party in banning representatives of The Queensland Times, Ipswich, from attending a Party press conference this month.

Australian Protective Service staff were used to evict a Queensland Times journalist and a photographer from a press conference that Ms Hanson had called on 6 July 1998. The newspaper complained to the Press Council that such action resulted in a serious limitation on the freedom of the press. The Council referred the matter to Ms Hanson for comment and offered to mediate between the parties to endeavour to reach an outcome satisfactory to both parties.

A representative of Ms Hanson rejected this offer and said that Ms Hanson had made it clear to The Queensland Times on a number of occasions that she no longer wished to speak to them because of perceived bias during the recent Queensland elections. The Council notes that it has not received a complaint to that effect. The newspaper has stated that it is willing to defend its coverage or any particular article in that coverage.

The Australian Press Council believes that restrictions on the reasonable access of newspapers to those in political and public life are generally not acceptable and can rarely, if ever, be justified. The Council does not believe that it is sufficient justification on Ms Hanson's part that she believes that a particular newspaper has been biased in its reporting. If she calls a press conference she should be prepared for representatives of all shades of opinion to report what she says. To act otherwise means that the public will only obtain their information from newspapers which she perceives will accept her views uncritically. While the Council makes no criticism of exclusive and selective interviews, it holds that a press conference, by its very nature, is open to the media in general and should not be subject to selective bans.

The Council emphasises that freedom of the press to publish is not so much a freedom for journalists, editors and proprietors. It is the freedom of the people to be informed. This is the justification for upholding press freedom as an essential feature of a democratic society. The Council believes that boycotting a particular newspaper is a sanction against its readers, who are deprived of information which they are entitled to receive at the same time as other citizens. The actions of Ms Hanson deprives readers of The Queensland Times of these rights.

Also on bans by politicians: GPR 203

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