General Press Release No. 210 (January 1997)

Appeal re Adjudication No. 890

The Press Council has dismissed an appeal by the Brisbane Courier-Mail against the Press Council's upholding of a complaint against the paper for its treatment of allegations that Professor Manning Clark was a Communist and had been awarded the Order of Lenin by the old Soviet Union.

The appeal was on two grounds. First, that there was a basic error of fact in the adjudication; and, secondly, that the character and standing of the complainants had been too much regarded by the Council.

The Council rejects flatly the second of the two grounds. The Council considered the listing in its adjudication of the complainants and their affiliations to be a matter of public interest. Their standing, however, did not influence the adjudication. On the first ground, the paper claims that it was incorrect for the Council to say that the newspaper had too little evidence to assert that Professor Clark had been awarded the Order of Lenin, and that rather there was much evidence to the contrary. The Council points out that there are still only two claims that such an award was made. One source has, in fact, stated his position as being less firm than presented in the original Courier-Mail articles. Further, the original complainants say that several expressions of informed opinion available on the unlikelihood of a secret Order of Lenin award to Manning Clark constitute support for the case against the paper.

However, the Council agrees with the newspaper that it should have drawn attention to a difference between the first edition coverage of the story in the paper, and that which was used in three-quarters of the print run. In the first edition, the first paragraph of the page 1 story read: "Professor Manning Clark was awarded the Soviet Union's highest award, the Order of Lenin". The later copies of the paper added the words: "... according to evidence investigated by the Courier-Mail".

The Council observes that the change, indeed, softens the direct firmness of the original assertion, but the overall treatment of the story indicated no such reservation, however slight.

Clearly, it is a matter of historical importance whether Manning Clark was, or was not, a communist; and whether he was an "agent of influence" (a description that may be interpreted in many ways from innocence to blackest guilt); and whether he performed some services deemed worthy of the Lenin Order.

The paper has told the Council that it is continuing its investigations into these matters, and that it will eventually report on those investigations. The Council anticipates that when the paper's investigations are complete, it will report fully on its findings.

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