News in brief - February 2000

Private Sector Privacy

A draft of the proposed legislation for the protection of personal data held by the private sector about which we reported last issue was circulated in December and the Attorney-General invited comments. As far as the Council is concerned the key changes in the Privacy Act (Amendment) Bill include:

• An objects clause which will include a clear statement about the need to balance important public interests including the public interest in the free flow of information through the media to the public.
  
  Section 29 of the Privacy Act currently requires the Privacy Commissioner to have due regard to the 'general desirability of the free flow of information' in the performance of his functions. The draft amendment to section 29 highlights the role of the media in facilitating this flow of information.
  
  As part of the process of approving a code developed by an industry group, the Privacy Commissioner will have to be satisfied that the code provides that code adjudicators will also have to have due regard for important human rights and competing social interests including the general desirability of the free flow of information to the Australian public through the media.
  
  
• The complaint procedures and investigatory provisions of the Privacy Act relate to 'acts or practices' which interfere with privacy. Acts or practices done by an organisation in the course of journalism will be exempt from these provisions of the legislation. 'Journalism' is defined broadly to mean reporting, photographing, editing, recording or preparing material having the character of news, current affairs, information or a documentary or commentary or opinion on, or analysis of, that material for the purpose of making the material available to the public.
  
  
• It will not be an offence for a journalist to refuse to give information, answer a question or produce a document or record where this would tend to reveal the identity of a person who gave information to the journalist in confidence.

The Press Council responded to the Attorney in mid-January with comments on the terms of proposed legislation insofar as it relates to the Press.

The Council reiterated the view that the adoption of this legislation has the potential to limit the freedom of the press in this country. It did not consider that the case for legislation has been established. However, if the government were determined to proceed with the Bill, the Council welcomed the inclusion of provisions to limit its impact on the media.

The definition of "journalism", the exemption of acts or practices done in the course of journalism and the protection for journalists from having to disclose their sources of information were all seen as appropriate to limit the impact of the legislation on the media. The Council considered that the language in the Bill is satisfactory and should not be altered.

However, there were two matters that the Council brought to the Attorney's attention. First, the Bill was incorrectly named. It is not concerned with privacy but with data protection and should be described accordingly.

More important was the scope of the proposed amendment to s 66 of the Privacy Act. This is the section protects journalists from revealing confidential sources. However, the same protection is not to be afforded to the source. Such a person will be guilty of an offence if s/he refuses to answer a question about the giving of information to a journalist. It seemed to the Council that it would be appropriate for the source of a journalist's information to also have a reasonable excuse for refusal to comply with s66. The Council urged the inclusion of such a provision in the Bill.

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New ACT Defamation Bill

A free Public Forum, sponsored by the Australian Press Council, to discuss the recently introduced ACT Defamation Bill 1999 was held on 9 February 2000 in Canberra.

The Bill proposes sweeping changes to existing defamation law that, if passed, would have a significant effect on defamation actions in the ACT. It includes detailed proposals for the settlement of defamation actions through alternative resolution methods, including greater emphasis on corrections and apologies as a way of dealing with defamations; limits on damages; and the introduction of aspects of negligence law into defamation.

The Forum, which will gave the law profession, the media and the public a chance to discuss the implications of the legislation, was opened by the Attorney-General, Gary Humphries. Other speakers included Ric Lucas of Colquhoun Murphy and Council member Chris McLeod of News Limited. A report on the seminar will be in the May issue of the News.

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Self-regulation Taskforce

The Treasury has established a taskforce to report on aspects of industry self-regulation. The taskforce has been invited to look at general questions on self-regulation, not to look in detail at the performance of any single self-regulatory body.

The Council Chairman and Executive Secretary appeared before the taskforce to give oral evidence. That wide-ranging discussion was supplemented by the tabling of Professor Pearce's paper on print media self-regulation an edited version of which was published in the November 1999 issue of the News. Subsequent to the hearing, the Council's Chairman made some further brief submissions by letter.

After noting that the taskforce had been informed about the Council by his paper, the Chairman continued:

I will deal with only two issues here.

First, the Council notes that paragraph 2(b) of your terms of reference refers to gaps and overlaps in industry self-regulation. As we discussed there is a significant gap in the present ability of members of the public to complain about the content of news published on-line. The Press Council has now determined that, in principle, it will deal with complaints against all publications of its constituent members no matter what form the publication takes. This has gone some distance to covering the existing gap. However, the many news sites on the Internet that are not associated with the newspaper and magazine industry will remain without any form of oversight....

The second issue was one that we also discussed at the meeting with the Taskforce. Some members of the Taskforce seemed to be concerned that there was no formal oversight of the Council's activities. As we observed at that time, the Council would be concerned if there were some form of government overseeing body as this would cut markedly across the broad concept of freedom of the press that has long been accepted in Australia in relation to the print media.

We wonder why some further form of oversight is required. There is a danger of accumulating custodians of the custodians. At some point it becomes necessary to trust the self-regulatory body lest it cease to be self-regulation.

The Council is a very transparent body, much more so than any government body of which we are aware. Its membership includes representatives of the public appointed after public advertisement. It publishes an annual report which is widely available in both print and electronic form. It also publishes a quarterly news journal describing its activities. It maintains a website. Its adjudications on complaints are published in the press, the Council website, the quarterly news journal and its annual report. The Council engages in self-examination through surveys of complainants. Its procedures have been amended recently following an extensive re-examination of all aspects of the Council's activities. The Council would be concerned if these aspects of its work were not given due credence in assessing its accountability.

The Council is critical of overseas models of press control that are not free from government intervention. It would be very troubled if recommendations were made that tried to impose some oversight of the Council by a body established by the government. Even if such a body was not comprised of members of the government, it would have to have on it persons who owed their appointment to government preferment.

As we said at our meeting with the Taskforce, it is our view that the press should be a self-regulated body and it is only by leaving it to control the form of that regulation itself that freedom of the press can be ensured.

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Council Planning Day

Further to the detailed report in the November 1999 issue of the News, the Council has been dealing mainly with two issues arising from Planning Day. The Promotions Committee is working with some PR professionals to develop an advertising campaign and promotional material on the Council. It is expected that this will go ahead in the first half of this year.

The Council has agreed in principle that it will deal with complaints about the news reporting activities of the Internet sites of its Constituent Members (the major newspaper and magazine publishers). It is currently working out the details of the methods by which it will deal with such matters and how adjudications will be "published". When these matters have been finalised it will implement the new regime. If that regime proves successful the Council will then investigate whether it can offer a similar service to Internet Newspapers which are not the product of Constituent Members.

The Council has also approved the amended Constitution which takes in the changes foreshadowed in the November issue. The Constitution is available fromthis website

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Launceston Meeting

Senator Nick Sherry (ALP, Tas) led off an Australian Press Council public forum on "What is News?" in Launceston in November. Senator Sherry spoke as a politician and public figure when he presented his opinions on what newspapers select as news.

He was followed by former leading educationist and community arts leader Margaret Bartkevicius, who spoke about the expectations of the average reader of newspapers. Rod Scott, the Editor of The Examiner, was the final speaker and spoke on the processes and issues involved for publications in the selection of news.

The public forum was held during a visit to Launceston by the Council for its monthly complaints hearings and Council meeting. Chair of the forum was the chairman of the Council, Professor Dennis Pearce. The forum was opened by Cr John Lees, the Mayor of Launceston.

A report on the forum is contained elsewhere in this issue of the News. A transcript has been prepared and will be published in February 2000. The booklet will be avilable for sale from the Council and available as a pdf file on the Council's website.

This was the Council's second visit to Launceston. The earlier one was in 1989.

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On the Council

The Council has, after extensive advertising in the region, appointed a new member to the Panel of Public Members, to represent the readers of south-east Queensland. In the transition from having Public Members and alternates to the current panel arrangement, the Council declared vacant the position held for the last six years by accountant David Cotton. It thanked Mr Cotton for his service to the Council as an alternate member.

The new member, Wendy Mead, is a Balmoral, Brisbane, resident who runs her own Professional Counselling practice. She is also heavily involved in arts administration having been associate producer of Drama Programming at the Brisbane Festival, director of the Brisbane Writers' Festival and general manager of the Queensland Youth Orchestra at various times in the 1990s. Prior to that she was in arts administration in Victoria and South Australia and taught drama at both the secondary and tertiary levels.

The position of Lange Powell as a member of the panel will be declared vacant at the end of March. Under the new arrangements, Mr Powell has served the allowed three three-year terms and, if he wants to continue on the Council, must respond to the advertisement for Public Members placed recently in South Australian newspapers (and reproduced below). The Chairman will interview applicants and make a recommendation to the Council at its March meeting.

Chris McGillion who has acted as John Fairfax Publications alternate member has resigned from the company to take up a teaching position at Charles Sturt University. Consequently he has resigned from the Council as well. The Council accepted his resignation with regret and wished him well in his new career. Also leaving the Council is Paul Murray, who has been for some years the representative of West Australian Newspapers. He has resigned as editor of The West Australian to explore new career possibilities and will consequently no longer be able to serve on the Council in his current role. Replacements for these members have not as yet been nominated.

The Council is delighted to report that the Country Press Association of NSW has conferred upon John Dunnet its highest honour of Life Membership. The honour is in recognition of two decades of dedicated service to the newspaper industry at State and Federal level.

Mr Dunnet is co-proprietor of The Courier at Narrabri. Following in his family tradition, he has given Narrabri and its district a quality newspaper, one which is of 100 years standing. Respected as a meticulous journalist, and a forthright editor, he is a forceful advocate of an independent press. Throughout his working life, he has deeply involved himself in regional and community affairs. He also finds the time to represent the Country Press Association as its alternate member on the Press Council.

AD

Applications are invited from interested persons in South Australia for appointment to the Australian Press Council panel of public members, representing the public. Such members attend about seven Council meetings each year.

The Council is concerned with the maintenance of the freedom and responsibility of the press and to that end adjudicates on complaints against the press, and considers matters affecting its freedom.

The Constitution of the Council provides that public members shall be appointed from persons otherwise unconnected with the press.

Further information may be obtained from the office of the Council:
Suite 303, 149 Castlereagh Street, Sydney 2000.
Telephone: (02) 9261 1930 or (1800) 025712 Fax: (02) 9267 6826
Email: infor@presscouncil.org.au

Applications should be addressed to the Executive Secretary, to reach him by 22 February 2000.

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Adrian Deamer

The Press Council mourns the passing of Adrian Deamer, who died on 16 January, aged 77.

Adrian served as an RAAF pilot during WW2, then followed his father, Syd, into journalism. He learnt his craft at the Daily Telegraph, and was eventually to become editor of papers in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Peter Costigan recalls the mid-50s, when he first met Adrian, to his delight, "when I joined the Melbourne Herald as a cadet. Adrian was my first chief of staff. He was a great man. He was a marvellous man to converse with, to have a drink with, and to philosophise with. I had been at the university, and he said, 'You're one of these intellectuals'. Well, I think we both discovered that he was more of an intellectual than I was."

And a man of conscience, too. By 1966 Adrian had joined The Australian. Five years later his very public skirmish with Rupert Murdoch over a matter of principle, and Adrian's subsequent sacking, was to became part of legend. As Adrian put it, Murdoch had complained that the paper, "took up every 'bleeding heart' cause that was fashionable among the long-haired left." His period of editorship is still considered by many as the high point of the paper's history.

At 51 years of age Adrian went off to university to study law. He was to become a specialist in defamation and media law, and he worked in private practice for eight years. Then, from 1984 until 1993, Adrian was employed by the Fairfax group as their legal manager. It was during this period that he represented Fairfax on the Press Council. He served for several years as the Fairfax representative, adding his insight as a journalist and a lawyer to the discussion of complaints and of press freedom issues. When he retired, the Council wanted to retain Adrian's involvement, and his expertise in areas like defamation law, and he was asked to stay on as a member of the Freedom of the Press Committee, where his vast knowledge of journalism and the law were invaluable.

Adrian accrued many friends during his long, famed, and sometimes turbulent career. Words such as charming, witty and generous have been used to describe him. And luminaries such as Donald Horne have eulogised him.

Having said all that, John Morgan remembers a man who "hated the fuss and cant of the songs of praise that usually accompany farewells and funerals. I remember having to chase Adrian by phone across half the vineyards of Victoria the day he was to be farewelled with a presentation on leaving the old Herald and Weekly Times to join Rupert. I caught him, despite his attempted vanishing act, poured coffees galore into him ... and me. He finished up fine. I went down with caffeine poisoning."

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Mediated Complaints

Many of the complaints to the Council are mediated by the office to the satisfaction of the complainant. Among recent examples are:

• A regional daily published an article referring to James Killen as "Mr", and giving Michael Lavarch the title of "former governor-general". The paper admitted that the sub-editor made a mistake in the governor-general assignment, and explained that the young reporter "was not up on the convention" in matters relating to Knights of the Realm. Upon receipt of the secretariat's letter, the paper ran a correction of its errors. The complainant was "satisfied with the correction actioned" by the paper.
  
  
• A metropolitan newspaper published an item referring to the complainant's behaviour at an AGM, but not naming him. The complainant objected to the description of his behaviour, and the fact that his name was omitted. He demanded a retraction of the item. The paper refused to publish a retraction. It did, however, mediate with the complainant, and the complainant's letter to the editor was published. The publication of the letter satisfied the complaint.
  
  
• Another metropolitan newspaper published an article which had an adverse effect on the complainant's business. The paper offered to publish a correction on an aspect of the article. The complainant added to the correction, which the paper agreed to. The complainant was very happy with the published correction.

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2000 Australian Press Council Prize

The Council has announced the terms of entry for its 1999-2000 award given for the best essay submitted on a set topic.

In 1999-2000 the topic is:

Principle 5 of the Council's Statement of Principles states in part that newspapers should disclose "any commercial or other interest which might be construed as influencing the publication's presentation of news or opinion". In the light of the recent revelations of the possibility that commercial interests may have influenced some radio personalities, to what extent is the press obliged to reveal any conflict of interest which may be involved in the reporting of news and the publication of opinions.

Look elsewhere on this website for information on the Prize.

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National Youth Media Awards 2000

The Awards are a Commonwealth Government initiative. There are 12 categories: eleven are open to journalists; and one category - the Popular Choice category - is open to all Australians to nominate a newspaper or magazine article, radio or TV item, or photograph that they believe best depicts Australians aged from 12 to 25 in a positive way.

Entries must appear in the Australian media between 6 April 1999 and 16 March 2000. The closing date for entries is 17 March 2000. For further information and entry forms see www.thesource.gov.au/nyma/

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Media and Democratisation

The University of Sydney's Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific and ANU's Centre for Democratic Institutions are organisating an International Conference 'The media and democratisation in the Asia Pacific' on 24-25 February 2000, in the Webster Theatre, Veterinary Science Conference Centre, Regimental Crescent, The University of Sydney.

The conference brochure says:

Agitation for political and economic reform in Southeast Asia has continued unabated since the financial crisis of 1997-98 brought to an end an era of unparalleled growth, with strong pressures to promote openness and transparency in business and politics. A free and open media in Asia is a key to realising these reforms.

Spurred by revolutionary technological changes, by new cross pressures of political and commercial opportunities and constraints, and by the increasing assertion of professional aspirations, the region's media are undergoing profound changes. How these issues are resolved will be crucial for both Australia and the region.

The RIAP and CDI have organised this conference to further understand these changes and explore their future directions. The conference will bring together political decision-makers, leading journalists, academics and business from Asia and Australia to debate the issues.

The major themes are:

• Globalisation, Nationalism and the Media
• New Media and Democratic
• Prospects Ferment: the Asian financial crisis and democratic struggle

Speakers include:

• Alexander Downer, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs,
• Bob Carr, Premier, New South Wales
• Julian Schweitzer, Deputy Vice President, East Asia & the Pacific,World Bank
• Professor Dennis Pearce, Chairman, Australian Press Council
• Dr Chee Soon Juan, Leader, Democratic Party, Singapore and member, Forum of Democratic Leaders in the Asia-Pacific (FDL-AP)
• Kavi Chongkittavorn, Editor, The Nation, Bangkok
• Dr Sheila Coronel, Philippines Centre for Investigative Journalism
• Reginald Chua, Editor, Asian Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong
• Willy Lam, South China Morning Post
• Associate Professor Garry Rodan, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University
• Louise Williams, Foreign Correspondent, Sydney Morning Herald
• Peter Mares, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
• Associate Professor Rod Tiffen, University of Sydney
• Mike Carey, Foreign Correspondent, SBS
• Maxine McKew, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Bulletin (Chair)

An important new book will be launched at the conference:

Losing Control: Freedom of the Press in Asia surveys the media in all the countries of north and southeast Asia. Edited by Louise Williams, correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald, and Roland Rich, Founding Director, CDI, the book examines issues such as the role of the Internet, challenges for the media and its role in the democracy movement in Asia. The book will be a useful resource for business, the media, government and academics providing analysis of the situation in each country. It will provide not only an insight into Asia's media but also practical information and all the key media addresses.

Further Information:
Rachael Cunliffe
Ph: 02 9235 2377 Fax: 02 9235 2327

Email: rachael@riap.usyd.edu.au

RIAP Website: http://www.riap.usyd.edu.au

CDI Website: http://www.cdi.anu.edu.au

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