General Press Release No. 259 (November 2003)

Annual Report No. 27

The Australian Press Council's twenty-seventh annual report, released today, draws attention to its recently developed Charter of Press Freedom in Australia. The Charter was adopted by the Council to provide a set of principles on which the Council could deal with an increasing number of threats to the traditional freedoms enjoyed by the Australian press to report on matters of public interest and concern.

In his Foreword, the Council's Chairman, Professor Ken McKinnon notes,

The Council has become increasingly busy over the last few years in matters relating to maintenance of the capacity of the print media to report matters of public interest freely, fully and fairly. Restrictions on journalistic access and on the availability of information to the public have increased. The willingness of governments and government departments to realise their responsibilities to keep the public informed are noticeably decreasing. They use an increasing array of strategies and tactics to inhibit or prevent access.

The report details a number of the current attempts to restrict reporting on matters of public concern, and on the Council's efforts to deal with these, in areas as diverse as surveillance devices legislation, access to court documents, protection of journalists' confidential sources, freedom of information laws, proposals for official secrets legislation and threats from Parliamentary Privileges Committees. These developments recently saw Australia drop from twelfth to fiftieth on the league table of press freedom issued by Reporters sans Frontieres.

The Charter of Press Freedom was developed in recognition that, in the absence of an express guarantee of freedom of speech, and of the press, there was a need to state the principles which should govern a free and responsible press. As Professor McKinnon notes in the report:

It is important to emphasise that the Charter seeks to achieve a balance between freedom and responsibility ­ the essence of success in a free democracy. The Council has never been a supporter of irresponsible journalism. It does not support laissez faire. That precious freedom, a press able to inform the public about matters of public interest (and other things that interest or amuse them), not licensed or regulated by governments or the bureaucracy, demands of those who are part of the press that they establish and maintain the highest ethical and professional standards. So the Charter articulates the ideals of a free and responsible press, it articulates the commitment and aspirations of the press necessary to achievement of a free flow of the best possible information among citizens. It a necessary statement of the desirable pact among those involved.

In addition to its activities in dealing with threats to a free press, the Council encourages a responsible press by dealing with complaints from the public about newspapers and magazines and the annual report demonstrates that fewer complaints received by the Council are now dealt with by means of a Council adjudication. Many more complainants have their matters mediated successfully by the Council or are satisfied by actions taken by the publication. Additionally, many complainants have taken advantage of the new alternate dispute resolution mechanism, mediation conducted by a Public Member of the Council who lives in the local area where the complainant and publication are.

In 2002-2003, the Council received 367 written complaints. (Many other complainants did not proceed to a formal complaint after telephone or email contact with the Council led to an amicable settlement of their concerns.) Only 51 of these were followed through to the final stage of the complaints procedure: the issuing of an adjudication by the Council. 84 were successfully mediated and a further 85 were withdrawn by the complainant after receipt of the publication's formal response to the complaint. (Other complaints were refused by the Council as being outside its remit; referred to other bodies; or not followed through by the complainant.)

The major areas of complaint continue to be inaccuracy (26 per cent) and imbalance - particularly the non-publication of letters to the editor ­ which accounts for 24 per cent of complaints. An area of complaint that attracted less concern this year was the publication of confronting color pictures on front pages of newspapers. 8 per cent of complaints were about allegedly offensive material. Complaints about invasion of privacy by the media were, again, a minor component of the complaints received (around 6 per cent).

The report also notes other activities undertaken by the Council. These included a series of case studies seminars with journalism students at a dozen Australian universities; an annual essay Prize open to tertiary students; an inaugural Annual Address by a prominent Australian on an issue dealing with the freedom or responsibility of the press; a series of consultations with the editors of metropolitan, suburban, regional and country newspapers; and the maintenance and updating of the Council's comprehensive Internet site.

Also included in the annual report are detailed statistics on the formal complaints received by the Council and circulation figures on all major publishers, provided by the publishers themselves.

Copies of the report are available from the Press Council office and extracts from it, including the complaints' statistics, are posted to the Council's website.

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