Adjudication No. 1416  (adjudicated March 2009)

The Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Rabih Alkadamani about an opinion article in The Australian on 26 November 2008 dealing with the Israel-Palestine conflict. It was an account by Janet Albrechsten of her experiences and views following an Israel-sponsored visit to the region.

Ms Albrechtsen spoke of Hamas rocket attacks, and briefly about what she saw as 'intractable hurdles to peace' before focussing on what she called 'a generation of Palestinian children being raised on a full diet of hate education' - partially funded by Western money - that negates the prospects of future peace.

Mr Alkadamani complained that Ms Albrechtsen's article was racist, attributing 'a host of odious ethics' to Palestinian children. He said that it singled out Palestinians for criticism, and lacked fairness and balance by failing to convey the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of Israelis, and that Ms Albrechtsen was remiss in not reporting distortions in Israeli school textbooks.

Mr Alkadamani said that he had provided to The Australian an opinion article repudiating Ms Albrechtsen's views, but this was not published. The Australian said that it had published a 'lively' selection of letters about Ms Albrechtsen's column in the days following its publication.

Mr Alkadamani expressed concern that the person who rejected his article, Rebecca Weisser, the Opinion Editor, had herself been on a sponsored trip to Israel, which resulted in a pro-Israeli feature article in The Australian on November 29. He argued that this reinforced doubts about the newspaper's balance in publishing opinions about the conflict. The Council considers that The Australian should have done more to encourage Mr Alkadamani to resubmit his piece in the form of a letter that could be considered for publication.

Opinion pieces will always be highly contestable elements in controversial debates, especially the Israeli-Palestinian debate. As long as a newspaper publishes a variety of views on such matters, and in a timely way, the requirements of balance and fairness are likely to be met. Newspapers have a heightened responsibility to ensure fairness when publishing opinion articles based on sponsored trips. In the Council's view, the newspaper met this responsibility in this case.

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