News in brief - February 2001

Australian Press Council Prize 2001

The Australian Press Council has announced the terms of entry for its 2001 award. The Prize is awarded for the best essay submitted on a set topic.

In 2001 the topic is:

Principle 5 states, in part, that publications should make fact and opinion clearly distinguishable. To what extent is such a clear division between fact and opinion possible and desirable?

Following the remarks made by the judges for the 1998-99 Prize and a decision taken by the Council, entries are invited from Tertiary students (as at 30 June 2001) only. The word limit for essays is 2,500 words.

Winners will be selected by a panel of three judges and the prizes of up to $2,000 will be awarded.

The final date for receipt of submissions is 30 June 2001.

At the request of the previous judges, the Council specifies that it would prefer entries that demonstrate some effort to research the topic and argue it seriously. It also requests that entries be typescript and double-spaced. No formal entry form is required.

The Australian Press Council reserves the right not to award a prize/s.

INQUIRIES:

The Executive Secretary

The Australian Press Council

303/149 Castlereagh Street SYDNEY NSW 2000

Tel: (02) 9261 1930 or (1800) 02 5712

Fax: (02) 9267 6826

email: info@presscouncil.org.au

More details are available on this website's Prize page.

For the guidance of entrants, the Council has posted there some comments from the judges of the 1994 Prize and of the 1998 Prize, which were of the same format but with a different essay topic. A different approach can be seen in the judges' comments on the 2000 Prize.

Return to APC News 2001 Index

[ return to top ]

2000 Prize

The 2000 APC Prize was presented to Jacob Aldridge at a Council lunch in January. Also present was Micahel Malouf, one of the 'honourable mentions' in the competition. The lunch was addressed by David Chipp, a former member of the UK PCC and an adviser to Lord Wakeham, who spoke about developments in press self-regulation in the UK and Europe.

In the article on Jacob Aldridge in the November 2000 News, his entry into a Brisbane high school was typoed as '1955', rather than '1995'. We regret the error and note he finished high school in fewer than 33 years.

Return to APC News 2001 Index

[ return to top ]

On the Council

The Age's representative on the Council, Mark Baker, has taken up a position with the newspaper in Asia. This means that he will no longer represent the organisation on the Council. His replacement is Ray Cassin, the chief leader writer of The Age and a columnist for The Sunday Age. He began his career in journalism with The West Australian in 1980, working as a general reporter and later as a sub-editor. After moving to Melbourne in 1985, he wroked as a sub-editor for, successively, The Age, The Sun News-Pictorial, and Jesuit Publications. While at Jesuit Publications, he won a Walkley Award for headline writing (1994). He returned to The Age in 1996 and has held his present position there since January 1998. He studied philosophy at the University of WA, and has retained an interest in the subject that is reflected in his Sunday Age column.

Return to APC News 2001 Index

[ return to top ]

Clarification

In its Annual Report 24, the Council reports that its Freedom of the Press Committee discussed a case involving Internet publisher Scott Balson. Mr Balson has provided the Council with information that confirms that he was charged with, and exonerated of, the offence of "unlawful publication" under section 7 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1978 and not with "contempt", the term used in the annual report. The Council is sorry that its choice of words has offended Mr Balson and takes this opportunity to set the matter right.

Return to APC News 2001 Index

[ return to top ]

Publications

As a part of the centenary of the Country Press Association of NSW, three books were launched at its conference late last year. All are available from CPA.

Community Journalism, published by Country Press Australia, is the only book published in Australia dealing primarily with community journalism and specifically with journalism in regional Australia. Mainly written to a strict specification by journalism educators and experienced journalists and editors, it was conceived as a manual for cadet and inexperienced journalists but it sets out the principles and ideals that underlie newspaper publishing in non-metropolitan Australia. Most of its 27 chapters outline general journalistic principles but they are tuned to the requirements of newspapers that service their local and/or regional communities. The book provides an insight into the objectives and ethics of community journalism which are different from those of national and metropolitan daily journalism.

Serving the Country Press, published by the Country Press Association of New South Wales, was researched and written substantially by Lloyd Sommerlad, a former chief executive of country publishing companies, with excerpts being reprinted from a book published by the Association in 1949 to mark its 50th anniversary. This was written by the later Arthur Shakespeare whose family founded The Federal Capital Press of Australia, publisher of The Canberra Times. This book of 268 pages outlines the history and many achievements of the association throughout 100 years; and features biographical details of scores of the newspaper families and identities.

Country Conscience, written by Dr Rod Kirkpatrick of The University of Queensland and initiated and substantially financed by the Bradley newspaper family of the Riverina, is the only comprehensive history of regional newspapers published in New South Wales from the 1840s. It is an intriguing volume of 478 pages and was the result of six years deep research by a noted newspaper historian and a former journalist and editor of regional newspapers in New south Wales. It provides a fascinating insight into the motivations, methods, privations and triumphs of publishers as they championed causes; supported or were rejected by their comminutes; and faced the challenges of economic pressures and coemption.

Deborah Kirkman looks at the first mentioned book in more detail elsewhere in this issue.

From Tasmania comes John West's Union of the Colonies, essays by the first editor of the Launceston Examiner, edited by Patricia Ratcliff, a former public member of the Council.

Return to APC News 2001 Index

[ return to top ]

The PCC is 10

The Australian Press Council, at its January meeting, resolved to congratulate the UK Press Complaints Commission (PCC) on a successful and influential first decade of operations. In an email the Council noted:

"The Press Council, which celebrates its own twenty-fifth anniversary later this year, is of course modelled on the British Press Council, and has always used the ideal of independent press self-regulation developed in the UK as a benchmark for its own deliberations.

"The maintenance of such independent self-regulation of the press through the PCC has been an important guide for newly democratising and developing countries which want to establish similar systems of their own, independent of government involvement. This has been particular important in the PCC's efforts in Europe, which the Australian Press Council hopes to replicate in the Asia-Pacific region.

"The Australian Press Council notes the PCC's success in the development and maintenance of a strong self-regulatory code and system, in the face of challenges from some in of the political sphere. It congratulates the PCC on its successes and wishes it well for the next decade."

The celebration of the PCC's tenth anniversary was a glittering affair according to the press reports, attended by, inter alia, the Prince of Wales, Prince William and Camilla Parker Bowles.

Return to APC News 2001 Index

[ return to top ]

Visitors

A delegation from the Films and Publications Department of the Singapore Ministry of Information and the Arts came to the office at the end of November during a fact-finding tour of Australia. They met with the new Chairman, Professor Ken McKinnon, John Morgan (an editor member), Ian Hicks (an industry member) and Executive Secretary Jack R Herman. The delegation asked questions about the Council's role and powers. They were particularly interested in the development of a code for newspapers and magazines but their idea of a code was one which placed a strong emphasis on self-censorship, rather than open debate.

The January Council Complaints Committee hearings were enlivened by the presence of 18 students from Pacific Lutheran University of Tacoma, Washington. On a program to study the Australian media, the students had the opportunity to observe a Complaints Committee hearing and question members of the Council.

The Chairman and Executive Secretary met with members of the Asian Media Council of Australia and with editors and senior executives from Fairfax's Sydney operation to enable them to meet Professor McKinnon. Subsequently, Professor McKinnon has met with senior editors and journalists at the Herald and Weekly Times and at the main Adelaide newspapers.

Return to APC News 2001 Index

[ return to top ]

Documents with the icon require the Acrobat Reader, a Free Utility from Adobe. Click here for more information.