Adjudication No. 1321  (adjudicated June 2006)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint against The Daily Telegraph from Stephen Mayne concerning a December 2005 Piers Akerman column in which he was mentioned.

The article discussed the federal government's proposed sedition laws aimed at preventing the 'urging' of violence and argued that journalists would not be caught by them. Mr Akerman continued: "While some media figures have been arguing for a shield law specifically to exempt the media from the anti-terrorism laws, it can be argued that almost anyone can call themselves a journalist these days, as evidenced by the nonsense published by people claiming to be journalists on websites such as Eric Beecher and Stephen Mayne's Crikey."

In a brief letter to the editor emailed four days later Mr Mayne wrote: "Piers Akerman blithely opines that 'almost anyone can call themselves a journalist these days' and then describes me as someone 'claiming to be a journalist'".

In two following sentences Mr Mayne outlined his journalistic credentials.

The newspaper replied that Mr Mayne's complaint was 'entirely without substance' and that a careful reading of the article showed that Mr Akerman did not label Mr Mayne as someone 'claiming to be a journalist'.

The Council agrees with this interpretation. It does not see any implication in the column that impugns Mr Mayne's journalistic credentials.

Nonetheless, the Council believes that, had the newspaper printed a letter from the complainant (the Council frequently recommends that complainants write letters to the editor to achieve balance), this matter could have been resolved at the outset.

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