Adjudication No. 1421  (adjudicated May 2009)

The Australian Press Council has dismissed a complaint by Moammar Mashni against The Herald Sun over the use of a map that accompanied a travel article in the newspaper's extrago section on November 7, 2008.

Mr Mashni had claimed the map, which was used to identify the whereabouts of the tourism destination Wadi Rum, in Jordan, was inaccurate and insensitive.

The map, a small, simplified version of a section of the Middle East, picked out Jordan and neighbouring countries Syria and Israel.

Mr Mashni, who is a representative of Australians for Palestine, argued that it should have also featured the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He sought a correction.

The newspaper said the map was not comprehensive, nor intended to be a political map of the region. Rather it was a 'locator' map, helping readers identify Jordan, and relate to the desert region of Wadi Rum, the subject of the accompanying article.

The Council agreed that the map was a simplified locator aid of the sort regularly found accompanying such articles and, as such, did not require further detail.

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