Adjudication No. 1412  (adjudicated December 2008)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint against the Moreland Leader over the publication of an article on October 7 about the website being constructed by the Moreland Greens for use in the upcoming local government election.

The site was unfinished and was clearly not "live". Journalists who were Internet aware enough would recognise a site under construction. The site made use of a common Internet tool of putting in a dummy Latin text, described in the article as "Latin-style gobbledygook".

The article on the unfinished website, complete with a picture of the site, contained comments from the complainant Seth Unmack, campaign co-ordinator of the Moreland Greens, who made it clear the site was not, as later asserted by the newspaper, released for public consumption.

In a sidebar the newspaper published a "translation", under the heading WHAT IT SAID. The "translation" made a number of statements about what would happen should the Greens control Moreland Council. The end of the sidebar said: "The Leader does not guarantee the accuracy of this translation".

On October 13 the Moreland Leader published a letter to the editor from the co-convenor of the Moreland Greens, Peter Hodge. Mr Hodge said the sidebar "merely seeks to reinforce tired and broken stereotypes, completely out of touch with the Greens significant profile in the City of Moreland". At the end of the letter the editor noted that the "translation" was published in a "light-hearted spirit and not to be taken seriously".

The Council agrees that readers would be unlikely to take the translation seriously. Nor was the article itself likely to mislead readers. Given the publication of the letter in the next available edition provided any necessary balance, there is no breach of the principles.

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