Adjudication No. 1340  (adjudicated December 2006)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Karen Severns and Koichi Mori over a Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum Essay published on 12/13 August.

The article headlined Frank Lloyd Wright's oriental secret was an essay by Tokyo correspondent Deborah Cameron on the architect's 1916-1922 work in Tokyo.

Ms Severns and Mr Mori have produced a documentary film on Wright's time in Japan and accused the journalist of using their scholarly conclusions and little-known facts without proper attribution. They also say that the article reproduced photographs provided by them without accreditation.

The newspaper agreed that the photographic captions were omitted from the article and apologised. It published a correction in Spectrum on 2/3 September.

The complainants said they provided a copy of their documentary, "Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings and legacy in Japan", to the journalist as well as a four-photo CD, and that they had also met her in Japan. They said the resulting article did not include the full title of their documentary or proper attribution, omitted photo credits and included simple factual errors.

They argued that they established, and built upon, the thesis that his time in Japan saved Wright and they were intellectual property owners of the idea. They said one of the aims of their documentary was firmly to establish that Wright's chief assistant Arata Endo was of pivotal importance to Wright's Japan work.

The newspaper responded that Deborah Cameron had long had an interest in Wright, even before she was posted to Tokyo, and maintained that what was claimed as original intellectual property had been in the public domain prior to the film and her conducting the interviews.

Her essay included quotes from Karen Severns. It clearly referred to her and Mr Mori by name, and to their privately funded film. The journalist included other references to books and newspaper articles in her essay.

She did not claim to be the originator of any of the theories put forward on Wright. Most readers would understand that she was using a number of identified sources extensively, including the documentary, to write an essay about her long fascination with the architect, and particularly his life in Japan.

The Council does not believe that her omission of any further specific attribution to the documentary or its makers breached its principles.

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