Adjudication No. 1366  (adjudicated September 2007)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint from the Bunbury Herald that the Bunbury Mail published a misleading article about the discovery of hundreds of undelivered newspapers and advertising catalogues among rubbish left on an untenanted property.

The 23 May 2007 article identified the undelivered newspapers as Bunbury Heralds. Subsequently, when removing these undelivered newspapers, the Herald said they also found more than 1900 Bunbury Mails among the rubbish.

They complained that the Mail's report diminished their newspaper in the eyes of their public and, in omitting reference to the Mail's own newspapers, the article was unbalanced, inaccurate and malicious.

From the outset the Mail categorically denied the presence of their newspapers on the property. They said that their journalist did not see any, nor did the property owner who provided a letter to this effect to the Council. Further, the Mail's distributor, responsible for transporting supplies to newspaper deliverers, said he had never visited the property.

Yet the Herald asserted that some 1900 Bunbury Mails were cleared from a shed on the property by the Herald's distributor and that this was corroborated by agents for the property. In support, the Herald supplied photographs of a shed, and newspapers carrying the Bunbury Mail masthead.

The Mail responded that the newspaper deliverer at fault did not move into the premises in question until after she had ceased employment with the Mail and that it was not credible that she would have moved such a large number of newspapers from her previous domestic address.

Given the profoundly polarized evidence presented by the parties, and the fact that the Mail offered the Herald a chance to have a balancing comment published, an offer the Herald declined, the Council can find no breach of its principles on accuracy and balance.

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