Self-Regulation of Online News
Promotion Campaign

The Australian Press Council has announced two major initiatives: it now deals with the regulation of members' Internet news sites and has launched a promotions campaign.

Online Self-Regulation

The Council has, for some time, been considering the impact of website news reporting on its activities. Its Executive Secretary, Jack Herman, discussed these matters in a paper presented to the Council's March 1999 Planning Day. From this basis, journalist member Sybil Nolan developed a discussion paper which the Council considered in late 1999 and a version of which was published in the November 1999 APC News.

Subsequently, the Council brought its plans to the attention of the federal Minister for Communications and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (which has a regulatory role in relation to some aspects of the Internet). Following consultations, the Council agreed not to infringe on the ABA's prerogatives in the area of sexually explicit material on the Web. The Council then sought the further advice of its publisher members and developed a protocol for the handling of complaints about on-line material.

The Council has now announced that, from 3 May, it will accept complaints about members' news reporting activities, whether they are in print or on the Internet. The members of the Council include all the publishers of metropolitan and national newspapers and the overwhelming majority of regional daily, country and suburban newspapers and national magazines. These organisations are also the main publishers of Australian news reporting on-line.

Council Chairman, Professor Dennis Pearce said: "Council members accept that press responsibility is not determined by the medium in which the story is presented. They therefore support the public's right also to lodge complaints about the members' on-line publications.

"If the Council finds that its self-regulation of its members' Internet sites is successful, it will offer other websites presenting news the same option, on a fee-for-service basis."

To facilitate the new procedures, publisher members have agreed that their Internet sites would contain a statement such as:

This site abides by the Principles of the Australian Press Council and complaints about its contents can be made to the Council.

together with a link to the Council's website. This link should be on one of the main pages of the site (perhaps the index page).

When the Council makes a finding about material appearing on a website, a link will be included in the relevant on-line site pointing to the adjudication as published on the Council's website. This link would appear on the front page of the on-line site published on the day requested by the Council if the original article, the subject of the complaint, appeared on the front page; otherwise the link will appear on the news index of the day requested by the Council. Additionally, an annotation, with the appropriate link, will be placed in the on-line archive of the article which was the subject of the complaint.

There is a further category of on-line news reporting: publications by non-members of the Council. The Council is considering whether it could play a role in relation to complaint resolution for these publications also. Once it has gained experience in the handling of complaints about on-line publications, the Council could, in liaison with on-line experts, draw up a plan whereby, on the payment of a fee, on-line publishers who are not members of the Council could become affiliates of the Council and note on their sites that they were subject to the Council's self-regulatory scheme.

Professor Pearce added: "The Council considers that the approach to the resolution of complaints relating to on-line news material as outlined by the Council provides an appropriate model for self-regulation of this aspect of the on-line industry. It is a significant recognition of the fact that the print medium is fast being overtaken by the Internet as the means of carrying news."

see also
On-line Publication
Sybil Nolan discusses Press Council self-regulation of on-line news.

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Promotion Campaign

The Council also used World Press Freedom Day to promote its activities, particularly its complaints-handling facility.

May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, which is honored around the globe to draw attention to those countries where press freedom (and the freedom of expression) is under direct threat.

The Australian print media, published in a country where press freedom is largely accepted as a key basis for a successful democratic polity, used World Press Freedom Day to draw attention to the link between press freedom and press responsibility.

Since its establishment in 1976, the Australian Press Council has been the public's way of ensuring that freedom for the press in Australia is matched by press responsibility. Complaints from the public about newspapers and magazines are dealt with by the Council, preferably by mediation towards an agreed settlement but also by adjudication of those complaints which cannot be settled.

One criticism of the Council is that its services are insufficiently promoted. The Council, in co-operation with the Australian press, is addressing that concern with the promotional campaign that it launched on 3 May.

Australian newspapers and magazines are donating space to the Council to run an ad which draws attention to the Council and invites the public to find out more about it. The majority of the mainstream media has agreed to assist the Council in this matter. The ad draws attention to the Council's activities as a complaint-handling body and to its work in defending freedom of the press in Australia, and invites interested people to ask for a detailed brochure (available from the Council office) or visit the Council's website.

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