Adjudication No. 1322  (adjudicated July 2006)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint brought by Paul Freeburn SC against The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, in relation to a bylined opinion article published on 17 November 2005.

The article, written by Margaret Wenham and headed Whistleblower left nursing wounds, contained an account of the imbroglio involving nurse Wendy Erglis who had claimed that a bone marrow transplant ward in the Royal Brisbane Hospital 'had acquired a bad workplace reputation'.

The article, written in the wake of an unsuccessful defamation action brought by Ms Erglis against the Queensland State government, noted the $500,000 possibly being awarded against her in legal costs and highlighted the 'difference in direction Erglis's whistleblowing took, to that of Toni Hoffman of Bundaberg Hospital inquiry fame'.

Mr Freeburn, who had acted as a Counsel in the defamation action, complained of a number of inaccuracies and false assertions in the article.

In response the newspaper suggested that the complaint itself was "muddled with inaccuracies". It stood by the journalist's right to comment.

The article under complaint is clearly a bylined opinion article. The Council has consistently held that such articles should be given a greater latitude for the expression of a point of view. In this case, the facts are open to interpretation and the newspaper was entitled to publish a commentary discussing the issues. Where a reader disagrees with the published point of view the best response is to submit promptly a cogent letter to the newspaper for publication. While Mr Freeburn sent a long letter to the editor two weeks after the article, it was clearly not publishable in the form submitted.

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