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May 2001 - Volume 13, No.2
News in brief - May 2001 2001 Australian Press Council Prize 2001 APC Prize 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 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 top ] Return to APC News 2001 Index Submissions On 6 March, the Council made a submission to the Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee on its inquiry into Bills concerning political honesty and accountability, particularly the Electoral Amendment (Political Honesty) Bill 2000. The submission can be found on the website. On 30 April the Council made a submission to the NSW Law Reform Commission in response to its Discussion Paper, Contempt by Publication. The submission, which made reference to the recent empirical evidence from New Zealand and NSW, on the greater than assumed independence of jury thinking, is reprinted on the website. The Council's Chairman and Executive Secretary have been involved in two discussions with the Law Reform Commission on its Contempt reference. Both meetings involved representatives of the print media and covered a number of issues raised by the Discussion Paper. The commission's representatives at these meetings included Justice Michael Adams, Professor Michael Chesterman and Justice Greg James. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 1998 Index On the Council Ian Hicks, the representative on the Council of John Fairfax Publishing, has retired from his position as Managing Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. Consequently he has resigned from the Council. The company has not as yet nominated his replacement. Ian Hicks' role at the Herald included prime responsibility for responding to all complaints to the newspaper, either directly or through the Council. He held that position, under a variety of titles, for many years and since 1994 also took his position on the Council. The Council acknowledges Ian's role in mediation of complaints, always looking for possible settlements of complaints. In the last few years, the Herald has mediated more settlements than any other metropolitan daily newspaper. Australian Consolidated Press has nominated Pam Walkley, the editor of Money magazine, as the alternate representative. She will attend those meeting which Alan Deans is unable to attend. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 1998 Index Health warning The Australian Press Council has issued a general guideline for the print media on the ways in which newspapers and magazines should approach the reporting of medical matters, particularly reputed treatments. An article, by editor member John Morgan, on the issues surrounding this GPR is published on the front page of this issue of the News. The full text of the press release is in a break-out on page 2. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 1998 Index Newcastle visit As part of its program of visiting regional and interstate centres, the Council will hold its May meetings in Newcastle, Australia's largest regional city. The meetings will be held on 17 and 18 May. Additionally the Council will meet with editors, journalists, politicians and community leaders from Newcastle and the Hunter region to discuss local issues and the press. This will be the Council's first visit to Newcastle. To mark the occasion, the Newcastle Herald, the city's daily newspaper, has asked the Council's Chairman, Professor Ken McKinnon, to write an op/ed piece for it. That article is reprinted on page 6 of this issue of the News. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 1998 Index Website The Council's website is regularly updated and can be found at http://www.presscouncil.org.au/ The most recent figures indicate that an average of about 250 people visit the site each day. The Council is considering the further upgrading of the site. It has two improvements in mind: the transfer to the site of all adjudications and the provision of a detailed search mechanism. At the moment, the first 1100 adjudications are housed on the AustLII site (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/apc) and only the most recent are on the APC site. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 1998 Index Case Studies The Council conducted the first of its 'new' Case Studies seminars at the University of Technology, Sydney, on 3 May. The original seminars used rewritten complaints based on original material in which all names, places and publications were changed. The Council has determined that seminars should now use mainly original material and a variety of resources to simulate the complaints process. Thus, on 3 May, the students discussed matters involving 'graphic' images of crime and tragedy; the reporting of suicide; and taste. The ensuing discussions were much more wide-ranging and, involving actual cases as they did, led the students to a more detailed consideration of the ethical dilemmas in newspaper and magazine publication. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 1998 Index Radio Appearance Professor Ken McKinnon took part in a discussion of press ethics on ABC Radio's national late night Nightlife program with Tony Delroy on 5 April. He was joined on the occasion by David Salter, the Executive Producer of the Littlemore program. The program discussed primarily issues of privacy arising from the 'Powerball winners' complaint (see Adjudication 1117 and Prof McKinnon's article) but ranged onto more general questions of press ethics and the role of the Press Council. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 1998 Index Privacy Conference A conference hosted by the Communications Law Centre, Victoria University, and Freehills, will be held on 25-26 June 2001 at the Victoria University Conference Centre, Floor 12, 300 Flinders Street, Melbourne. Privacy: a key issue in the 21th century. Is Australia keeping up? is the title of the conference. Privacy law is developing in Australia at a rapid pace. The Privacy Conference discusses protecting privacy, while balancing business, government and community interests. The conference explores key legislation in Australia, international experience and models, health records, reform proposals, privacy and the media and the role of privacy in Australia's democratic framework. Speakers include:
For information contact Cheryl Wragg (03 9688 4199) or visit the website, www.comslaw.org.au [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2001 Index Documents with the |
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