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May 2007 - Volume 19, No.2
News in brief - May 2007 News by email News by email Press Council publications will sent by email to those who ask for delivery in that form. If you want the News sent direct to you (in pdf format) please send an email to info@presscouncil.org.au with subject line 'News by email' and you will be placed on the direct email list. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index APC Prize There will be no Essay Prize in 2006-2007. As in 2005-2006, the Council will be making a series of awards for outstanding scholarship through the various journalism departments and faculties at Australian tertiary institutions. The Council is endowing a prize worth $300 this year, either for outstanding achievement in a course directly related to the study of print journalism, particularly in the area of ethics, or for a particular piece of work in that area. For more information on the APC Prize, its history and future [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index On the Council John Fleetwood, a public member from South Australia, and Cheryl Attenborough, a public member from Tasmania, have been re-appointed to second three-year terms by the Council. Barry Potter, who has represented regional dailies for the last three years, and his alternate Ian Pech have indicated an inability to serve additional terms. The Council is seeking the advice of the proprietors of regional dailies as to their representative for the next three years. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index In the Office Office Manager Deborah Kirkman's article on the Press Council's use of Alternate Dispute Resolution has been posted to the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia on-line journal, on pages 62-63 of the current issue. The URL is http://www.iama.org.au/pdf/nat0612.pdf [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Come Clean TThe Council has launched a 'come clean' campaign to encourage governments and other holders of information to be more open with the public by providing the media with the information they need to report on matters of public interest and concern. The Council has noted the increasing decline in the openness of information providers. Whether it is through legislation that restricts material, through the use of 'spin', leaks and media management to release only a part of the story, though judicial actions that suppress material before courts, or close the courts, or through the abuse of laws intended to make information available (such as the use of conclusive certificates stop material being available under Freedom of Information laws), there has been a marked diminution in the ability of the media accurately and fairly to report matters that are properly in the public interest. One step in this campaign was the publication of an opinion piece (A fight for freedom, written by Council Executive Secretary Jack Herman) in the Melbourne Herald Sun on 14 May. The article has been posted to the Council's website. Another step is the decision to co-host a conference with the University of Melbourne Centre for Communications and Media Law on 27 July. "Open Justice, the Courts and the Media" is to be held at Melbourne Law School. There will be four sessions: the courts and the media; suppression orders - whose interest?; contempt of court and journalist services; and Freedom of Information - the way forward. The conference is open to the public and inquiries can be made to either the Council or the CMLC. One non-government aspect of the 'come clean' campaign will be support from the Council for media campaigns to ensure that the commercial interests of sporting bodies do not interfere with the ability of the media properly to report matters of public interest arising from sports. In this area, the Council has already expressed concerned at the failure adequately to accredit on-line journalists and the granting of exclusive rights to cover a sport or exploit images from it. The Council is also concerned when sporting bodies use internal disciplinary procedures, including fines, to try and silence participants and coaches from expressing their views on developments within the game. In the light of its own 'come clean' campaign, the Council has welcomed the launch of the Australia's Right to Know campaign by the proprietors of the print and electronic media. The campaign will commission an audit of the current state of free speech in Australia and, on the basis of that report, will lobby governments and the judiciary, seeking a major reappraisal of laws and regulations that censor free speech and undermine the right of all Australians to get information that is relevant and important to their lives. The campaign has been supported by News Limited, Fairfax Media, the ABC, FreeTV Australia, Commercial Radio Australia, SBS, AAP and Sky News. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Posted defamatory material The Council has made submissions to the federal, state and territory governments seeking changes to the way in which laws deal with potentially defamatory or offensive material posted by users to website discussion forums. The Council is seeking changes to the Commonwealth Broadcasting Services Act and to the state and territory Defamation Acts. The Executive Summary of the submission to the federal government read: The Australian Press Council brings to the attention of the Commonwealth government the problem of defamatory or offensive material being posted by users to website forum discussions and the associated exposure of publishers to the risk of liability. The submissions to the state and territory governments were in similar terms, with the final paragraph of the Executive Summary reading: The Press Council urges governments to reform the Defamation Act in order to ensure that publishers are not exposed to excessive risk in relation to material that they have not authored. Such reform could also ensure that publishers deal appropriately with defamatory posts when they are aware of them. The complete submissions have been posted to the Press Council website (http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/fop/fop_subs/bsa_defam.html and http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/fop/fop_subs/in_dissem.html, respectively). For more information on defamation on this website: Defamation page. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Advocacy of terrorism The Press Council has also made a submission to the Commonwealth Attorney-General on his proposals to amend the Classification Code to prohibit publication of material advocating terrorism. The Executive Summary of the submission read: The Press Council urges the Attorney-General to reconsider the introduction of the proposed amendment to the classification scheme. However, if the government does proceed to introduce a ban on material which advocates terrorism, the Council is of the view that the following recommendations should be implemented: The complete submission has been posted to the Press Council website. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Protection of sources The Press Council has been pressing the federal, state and territory Attorneys-General to follow up their commitment to introduce shield laws, protecting journalists from being forced to reveal their confidential sources. Based on a Law Reform Commission recommendation, the Attorneys-General have agreed to use the extant NSW law as the basis for their uniform legislation. The federal AG has advised the Council that federal legislation would be introduced in the Budget session and would be based on the existing NSW legislation. The federal AG was seeking to press his state and territory counterparts to enact similar provisions. The WA Attorney had suggested that his decision whether to introduce such legislation would be conditional on West Australian Newspapers replacing the editor of its daily newspaper. Subsequently, the Council, which remains convinced that the NSW model is not sufficiently strong to protect journalists, has again written to all Attorneys drawing their attention to better models, more likely to protect journalists from being forced to choose between jail and the revelation of a confidential source, in legislation from comparable democracies. The US House of Representatives is currently dealing with a proposed new law, the Free Flow of Information Act, which is discussed by Bree Nordenson in the Columbia Journalism Review May/June 2007. The New Zealand Parliament passed a new Evidence Act that in Section 64 made protection of sources the default position from which courts can only move, in the interests of justice, in the most dire of circumstances. New Zealand and the USA feel the need to protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources in most circumstances important enough to develop better laws. They have in fact come up with workable solutions to the difficult task of isolating those few extreme occasions that should require journalists sources to be identified in court. They have done so while establishing a default position that courts should not allow legal fishing expeditions just because particular authorities are miffed that news the public has a right to know has been reported. While the language of either proposal may not be the same as an Australian law would use, the Council believes that the US and New Zealand legislation both provide sound bases for a putative Australian shield law. The Council has asked the Attorneys-General to revise the proposed uniform national shield proposals so that they would in fact protect journalists and keep them out of jail. For more information on protection of journalists' sources on this website: Protection of Sources page. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Incorporation The Council has reviewed and re-written its Constitution with a view to incorporating the Council under the provisions of the Associations Incorporation Act. The Council has operated as an unincorporated association up to now but the Council sees many benefits in incorporation. After consultation with its Constituent Bodies, a revised Constitution has been finalised and application for registration made to the NSW Department of Fair Trading. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Research The Council will in 2007 publish a supplement to the State of the News Print Media in Australia report. It will seek to publish a new version of the full report in 2008. The original research in the supplement will include analyses of the fairness of election reporting in a number of Australian newspapers. Content analyses have been carried out at a number of university journalism schools and the results will be published in the SNPMA supplement, together with updates on readership and circulation figures and reports on developments in on-line news sections and in blogging. The Council is convening another meeting with university researchers in journalism and related areas on Monday 28 May to discuss what research is occurring within universities at the moment and to see how best the Council can assist researchers in developing useful research projects. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Perth Visit WA Chief Justice Wayne Martin addressed an Australian Press Council public meeting on Access to Justice - The Media, the Courts and the Public Record in Perth on Thursday 22 March. Chief Justice Martin spoke about public and media access to the Courts and their records, and the principles governing that access, and the benefits to the community generally from the widest possible public and media access to the workings of their Courts. He also addressed particular aspects of access arising from the availability of new technologies, such as the Internet, and the prospect of web-based broadcasting of court proceedings. A report of his speech is in this issue of the News and the complete address has been posted to the Council's website. The public meeting was held during a visit to Perth by the Press Council for its monthly complaints hearings and Council meeting. Chair of the forum was the Council Chairman, Professor Ken McKinnon and it was co-sponsored by Minter Ellison. This was the Council's third visit to Perth. The previous one was in 1996. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Annual Address 2007 David Kirk, the CEO of Fairfax Media, delivered the Australian Press Council's 2007 Annual Address at a media lunch on 10 May in Sydney. His Address was entitled: Convergence: The Print Media, the New Media and Press Freedom. A report of his speech will be in the August issue of the News and the complete address has been posted to the Council's website [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Defamation toolkit Professor Mark Pearson of Bond University advises that his journalism department's on-line Australian Journalist's Defamation Toolkit has been revised for the reformed defamation laws and can now be accessed at http://www.bond.edu.au/defamkit/default.htm.This has been acclaimed as a useful tool, particularly for regional and rural journalists. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index NZ Press Council Review Sir Ian Barker and Professor Lewis Evans are reviewing the operations of the New Zealand Press Council. They visited the Australian Press Council on 17 and 18 April to discuss with the Chairman and Executive Secretary the way in which the Australian Council operates. The reviewers were particularly interested in the Australian council's use of conciliation techniques, in its take up of c aints about matters posted to newspaper websites, and in its role as a protector of the freedom of the press, as well as of the press' responsibilities. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Fiji visit Chris McLeod, an industry member of the Council, went to Fiji to speak at World Press Freedom Day events. There was considerable coverage of the visit and other activities, both in the print and electronic media. Mr McLeod had four meetings with various media people, including the Fiji Media Council and employees at the Fiji Times, did an interview with a journalist and gave the keynote speech. The speech turned out to be a big occasion: there was seating for 100 people but 250 turned up. The people at the forum would have gained a clear understanding from all the speakers that journalists operate in Fiji at present under pretty trying circumstances. [ return to top ] Return to APC News 2007 Index Conciliated complaints The Council office tries to solve matters by direct contact with the publication concerned. This often leads to a settlement of the matter satisfactory to both parties. On rare occasions, a Public Member of the Council will convene a face-to-face conciliation, by agreement with the parties. Below are some examples of the matters recently settled in these ways.
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