Adjudication No. 1376  (adjudicated December 2007)

The Australian Press Council has considered complaints against The Daily Telegraph about an article headlined Street safety has been shot to pieces published on page 8 of its 1 October 2007 edition.

The article, referring to the previous weekend as a 'weekend of violence', reported two incidents involving robbery using firearms and the stabbing of three youths with a screwdriver. The article was accompanied by a close-up photograph of the youth a matter of hours after he had undergone surgery in St Vincent's Hospital for four serious stab wounds.

The complaints from the hospital and the patient's parents focused on the fact that, as a hospital in-patient, the victim's right to privacy had been breached.

While agreeing that the newspaper had received written consent from the year 11 student to interview and photograph him, the complainants stated that he was medically 'not in a position to give informed consent'.

The parties had divergent views on how the journalist and the photographer gained admission to the patient. The Council is in no position to determine what happened.

When publications interview subjects following surgery they should be aware that patients might not always be capable of giving informed consent.

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