Adjudication No. 1348  (adjudicated March 2007)

The Australian Press Council has upheld in part a complaint from Michelle Downes over an item headed A bad option in The Age on 13 December 2006.

The item was contained in The Diary segment of the newspaper. This is essentially a gossip column where opinion plays a major part in many of the articles.

The article discussed (substantially from the perspective of a friend of the late Peter Brock) the fact that Peter Brock's ex-wife (Michelle Downes - the complainant) had claimed in an article in New Idea magazine that Peter Brock had engaged in domestic violence during their marriage.

The exercise of making complaints about deceased persons was criticised by the friend of the late Peter Brock. Outside of direct quotes from the friend of Brock, the article in its editorial commented that the complainant was "odd" and that she had "rushed to [New Idea] magazine to make tacky claims". These references are the subject of the complaint.

In a number of adjudications, the Council has acknowledged that there is often a fine line between the issue of fact and opinion in gossip columns or opinion pieces. The Council's principles require that readers must be readily able to recognise what is fact and what is opinion. When information is presented as fact (whether in a gossip column, opinion piece or any other article) the publication must take reasonable steps to check the accuracy of what they report.

The Council determines that use of the words "odd" and "tacky" are clearly opinion and would be so discernable to a reader. To that extent the complaint is dismissed.

However, the article contained a reference that the complainant, after the death of Peter Brock, "rushed off" to the magazine. This was presented as fact, which is contested by the complainant who claims that her provision of the information to the magazine had been planned before the death of her ex-husband and was to be published to coincide with White Ribbon Day (the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women). White Ribbon Day is commemorated on 25 November each year. The New Idea article was published on 17 November 2006. The complainant says the newspaper would have verified these facts if it had checked with the White Ribbon Day officials, New Idea or the complainant herself.

The newspaper failed to check information that it presented as fact. To this extent the complaint is upheld.

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