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May 2000 - Volume 12, No.2
News in brief - May 2000 2000 Australian Press Council Prize 2000 APC 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:
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 1999) only. This year, there will be no Prize offered in a secondary schools' section. The word limit for an essay is 2,500 words. The winner will be selected by a panel of three judges and a prize of up to $2,000 will be awarded. The final date for receipt of essays is 30 June 2000. 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. Details in the Prize and previous judges' comments can be found elsewhere on this site. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index On the Council The position of Lange Powell, the Council's Vice Chairman, as a member of the panel of Public Members was declared vacant at the end of March. Under the new arrangements, Mr Powell had served the allowed three three-year terms and had to re-apply for the position, together with interested members of the public from South Australia where an ad calling for nominations was run. Following interviews with a number of the outstanding candidates, the Chairman recommended Mr Powell's re-appointment for a further three-year term and this was endorsed without dissent by the Council. In other appointments, The Age nominated Mark Baker, the Deputy Editor of The Age, as its new representative. His alternate will be Paul Austin, the Managing Editor (Opinion and Analysis) at the newspaper. During a newspaper career spanning nearly three decades, Mark has spent more than 10 years as a foreign correspondent with postings in Papua New Guinea, China, Hong Kong and Thailand. His assignments have ranged from the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong and the Tiananmen uprising in Beijing to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, coups in Fiji and Cambodia and civil wars in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bougainville. During the early 1980s, he also served as Beijing correspondent for The Financial Times, London and later was Asia Correspondent for the News Limited group. His appointments at The Age have included Foreign Editor, Political Editor and Canberra Bureau Chief, and Night Editor. Gerard Noonan has been nominated by John Fairfax Publications as Ian Hicks' alternate. Gerard Noonan is the Education writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index In the office Michelle Hilder, the assistant to the Executive Secretary, has left the Council. She was offered a junior executive position with recruitment specialists Morgan and Banks. Since her study has been in the area of Human Resources the position was an ideal entry for her into HR with a specialist company. The Council wishes her well. The new office assistant is Stephanie Dick. She will be working at the Council from 22 May so it will be her voice you first hear. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index The Internet The Council's Internet site has recently been upgraded and its navigation improved. Additionally some new material has been added including a series of annotated Freedom of the Press links. These references to sites, with information on issues like defamation reform, contempt and press freedom generally, were developed by second year journalism students at RMIT in 1999. Other new material includes further back issues of the APC News (1995 has been added) and a new on-line complaints form. Many of the Council's recent publications are available on-line in pdf format. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Award John Lyons, a member of the Council representing Australian Consolidated Press, already the winner of the MEAA's Walkley Award, was named Graham Perkin Award Australian Journalist of the Year and also won an award for the best news story of the year at the recent Melbourne Press Club Awards. The Council offers John its congratulations.. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Planning Day Progress Further to the detailed report in the November 1999 issue of the News, the Council has been dealing mainly with issues arising from the 1999 Planning Day. The Promotions Committee, working with some PR professionals, has developed an advertising campaign which is now in progress. The Council has also expanded its complaints procedures to allow for complaints about news reporting websites published by Council members. Information on these developments is to be found elsewhere in this issue. The Promotions Committee has been looking at further ways of letting the press and the public know of the Council and its services. As a result, Sandra Symons, a journalist member of the Council, and Jack R Herman, its Executive Secretary, have appeared on the NSW/ACT ABC radio metropolitan and regional networks' evening program with Tracey Hutcherson. The Council hopes to make such appearances a regular occurrence and to encourage the use of talk-back radio in other states as well. Additionally, the Council has scheduled a session, to discuss journalistic ethics, with post-graduate students at the University of Technology, Sydney. The evening, on 1 June, will include use of the Council's Case Studies which are being developed for independent use by secondary and tertiary teachers. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Privacy in the Private Sector Australians will have a comprehensive privacy regime that will cover the private sector for the first time, under legislation introduced into Parliament. The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Bill 2000 is the most significant development in the area of privacy law since the passage of the Privacy Act in 1988, which covers the Commonwealth public sector The light touch regime will protect consumers by ensuring that personal information is collected, stored and handled fairly by private sector organisations. The Bill will ensure that privately-developed databases of personal information need to be up-to-date with correct information, held securely and open to scrutiny. It will also allow people to access records about themselves and to correct those records if they are wrong. Organisations that collect personal information will not generally be able to sell or transfer that information to a third party without consent. The Bill implements the National Principles for the Fair Handling of Personal Information, which were developed by the Privacy Commissioner following extensive consultation over more than a year with business, consumers and other interested groups. A key feature of the Bill is that private sector organisations can develop their own codes to regulate the collection, storage, use and disclosure of personal information. These codes must offer as much protection as the National Principles and must be approved by the Privacy Commissioner. Under the Bill, people will be able to complain to the Privacy Commissioner or approved code complaint body if a private sector organisation breaches the privacy rules. Resolving complaints will focus on conciliation, rather than litigation. However, there is provision for financial and non-financial remedies, such as compensation or an apology. The legislation will take effect on 1 July 2001 or 12 months after the Bill has been passed, whichever is the later date. The Privacy Commissioner will conduct a formal review of the operation of the legislation and all of the exemptions after it has been in operation for two years. The Media According to the federal Attorney-General, The Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Bill 2000 aims to balance the public interest in allowing a free flow of information to the public through the media and a person's right to privacy. The Bill exempts acts and practices of media organisations in the course of journalism.\ Journalism is defined as the collection, preparation and dissemination of news, current affairs, documentaries and other information to the public. This also includes commentary and opinion on, or analysis of, this kind of material. The definition is wide and recognises that journalists deal with a broad range of information, such as sports news, cultural events and the arts. A media organisation is an organisation that is engaged in or whose activities include journalism. For example, an issues-based community group that concentrates on fundraising and lobbying may also have a legitimate role to keep the public informed about its concerns. Some acts and practices of such organisations will fall within the definition of journalism under the Bill. A range of other provisions also recognise the important role of the media in facilitating the free flow of information to the public. Importantly, it is not an offence for a journalist to refuse to give information, answer a question or produce a document or record which is sought under the Bill where this would tend to reveal the journalist's confidential source. The Bill also recognises that the public interest in the free flow of information to the public through the media may compete with the right to privacy. The Privacy Commissioner and approved privacy code adjudicators will be required to take these competing interests into account when considering complaints. See also [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Melbourne (and other out-of-Sydney meetings) The Council held its May meetings in Melbourne. On this occasion it decided not to hold a public meeting but to hold a reception that enabled it to meet members of the press and of the public in order to further promote its services. The meetings were held on 11 and 12 May and the reception was at the Melbourne Town Hall and was addressed by the Victorian Minister for Education and the Arts, Mary Delahunty, herself a former journalist. The next visit will be to Adelaide in the second week of October. The Council has published the transcript of its Launceston forum, What is News? The transcript is available from the office for $5 and has been posted to the Council's website as a pdf file. See also [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Mediated complaints Many of the complaints to the Council are mediated by the office to the satisfaction of the complainant. Among recent examples are:
[ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Senate Committee Report The Australian Press Council has received a copy of the Report of the Senate Select Committee on Information Technologies entitled In the Public Interest: Monitoring Australia's Media. The Council's Chairman, Professor Dennis Pearce, described it as "a very silly report in that it proposes that public monies be spent on a problem that does not exist" . The report proposes the establishment, at the taxpayers' expense, of a Media Complaints Commission to oversight the handling of complaints against the media, yet it makes no case for the need for such a body. The argument for the inadequacy of the existing complaints mechanism dealing with the print media is based on two examples, one of which involved a politician. The Press Council handles many hundreds of complaints each year. Both examples were concerned with the republication of photographs that had been the subject of an adverse finding by the Council. Despite the Committee's criticism of the Council in relation to these instances, its proposed public-funded Commission would not have been able to prevent the same action occurring. The Committee refers to no public representations to it for the establishment of the body that it proposes, let alone that public monies should be spent to support it. The evidence cited to attack the Council is from well-known critics who desire a licensed media and from academics and journalists who have no current knowledge of the working of the Council. The Committee also relies on its perception of the operation of the UK Press Complaints Commission to draw comparisons with the Australian Press Council. No-one with any knowledge of the British media could argue that its complaints commission has ensured that the privacy of individuals and the accuracy of reporting is better protected there than here! The report is heavy in its support for media control. This, of course, is attractive to many politicians as it enables avoidance of public attention relating to their affairs. However, the report pays scant attention to that most fundamental of principles: that a free society only exists where there is a free press. See also [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Paul Murray on editor members Last month we reported that Paul Murray had resigned as editor of the West Australian and had left the Council. Paul is now the host of the 6PR morning talkback program. In his letter of resignation, Paul Murray made an interesting point about the level of representation of the industry on the Council: "I am constantly surprised that more editors do not find the time to sit on the Council. I found it one of the best learning experiences in my life as an editor, made no less important as my tenure extended." [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2000 Index Documents with the |
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