General Press Release No. 234 (November 1999)

Annual Report No. 23

The Australian Press Council, in releasing its twenty-third annual report today, said that the report demonstrates that the Council continues to perform an effective role as arbiter of complaints about the press.

The Chairman of the Council, Professor Dennis Pearce, noted that the 468 complaints received in 1998-99 was the largest number the Council had ever received in one year. He believed that this increase reflected the Council's higher profile, rather than showing any fall in print media standards.

"The Council's emphasis on settling complaints by informal negotiation or mediation has led to a greater number being resolved amicably. This is of great benefit both to the persons complaining and the press involved," Professor Pearce said.

The report also indicates the Council's efficiency in dealing with complaints. The complaints settled amicably were usually resolved quite quickly. The 58 matters that ultimately has to be adjudicated by the Council took an average of 13 weeks from receipt of the letter of complaint to the issuing of the adjudication. The quickest was completed within five weeks and the slowest took 23 weeks (delayed by a complainant taking time to decide whether to sign the Council's legal waiver).

"The relatively short time taken by the Council to deal with complaints compares favourably with other regulatory and self-regulatory agencies and very favourably with the courts", according to Professor Pearce.

Professor Pearce also commented that the principle of self-regulation of the media is again under threat. This year saw questions being raised by a committee of the Senate and by the Productivity Commission about the replacement of the Press Council with some form of statutory regulator.

The commission's draft report had not referred to the Press Council's position and the Senate committee had not reported prior to the annual report's publication but any proposal for change towards a regulatory regime will be resisted by the Council. This is not out of self-interest but from the conviction that supervision of the press by a government-appointed body is inimical to the preservation of a press free from government oversight and control.

The report shows that, during the current year, the Council also came under attack from some newspapers. The Chairman observed that this gave lie to the assertion that the Council was without teeth. Clearly some papers had not liked its bite!

All the major metropolitan, regional, country and suburban newspaper and magazine publishers have continued to recognise the Council's jurisdiction. As the report notes, The Australian refused to co-operate with the Council for a short period but it has subsequently returned to full co-operation with the Council in dealing with complaints.

The report indicates that the Council continued to take a significant part in world press activities through its membership of the World Association of Press Councils and its interest in the media of the south Pacific region. The Council hosted the first Oceania Regional Conference of the Association in Brisbane in June 1999. The Conference was attended by representatives from a number of overseas countries, particularly from the Asia-Pacific region, as well as editors, journalists, academics and other interested persons from every state in Australia.

In its role as a defender of the traditional freedoms of the Australian press, the Council made submissions to relevant bodies relating to a wide range of issues that affected the media, including defamation, freedom of information, the use of surveillance devices and personal privacy.

The Council is concerned that there is an attitude developing that seeks to constrain the free flow of information rather than seeing this as an essential part of democracy in a civilised, developed country. The freedom of the press that forms the foundation of the Council's reason for existing is a right not of the press but of citizens to be part of a free exchange of information and views relating to all aspects of their community.

see also
1998-99 Freedom of the Press Report
Press Council's 1998-99 complaints statistics
Complaints Not Adjudicated 1998-99

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