Regional Press and Privacy

In September, the Press Council visited Bathurst, a NSW regional centre. While there, it convened a public meeting to discuss whether there were different standards to be applied to intrusions on privacy in regional communities. Deborah Kirkman reports.

Early this year a regional newspaper published a front page photograph of a road accident. It showed a blood-stained white sheet covering the victim, with one of his legs protruding from the sheet. The victim was named: a man who lived in the region.

The victim's family claimed that the newspaper had breached Press Council principles in respect of taste and the privacy and sensibilities of individuals. The family was hurt and anguished by the publication of the photograph. The newspaper, in its defence, argued that it was fulfilling a public service role, that road trauma was a huge issue.

Should the Press Council treat complaints against country or regional newspapers differently than it does for the metropolitans? Adjudication No 926 upheld the complaint by a 9 to 8 majority. The Press Council believed "that there is still a distinction between photographs of the unidentified victims of foreign carnage, and a front page picture of a body in a local community where many people might know the dead man".

The above scenario was pertinent to a Press Council forum held in Bathurst in September on the topic, "Regional Press, Privacy and the Press Council".

[return to top]

Lloyd Whish-Wilson

As the representative for Regional Dailies on the Press Council, Lloyd Whish-Wilson is all too familiar with the problems faced by regional newspapers. "In dealing with privacy there are some aspects that are universal. But regional newspapers have the added responsibility of being highly personal, able to cause great damage in their small, generally close knit communities and readers often have a very different expectation of their behaviour to that of their metropolitan brothers." He does not believe it is up to the Press Council to actually judge newspapers depending on the location, rather, he thinks that as the issues for his newspapers are closer to home, "we should take notice of what the community wants. If we ignore that, we do that at our peril".

[return to top]

David Flint

Prof David Flint, in his farewell appearance as Chairman of the Australian Press Council, examined the invasion of privacy issue. He noted that the last Australian newspaper to practise intrusion "withered away some years ago. Why? The public lost interest." Prof Flint spoke of the shameful way the late Princess of Wales was treated by the paparazzi. This doesn't happen in Australia, where its "press, metropolitan and regional, typically respect the private lives of our public figures. No politician here lives in fear of the snooping that the British press engages in. The only occasions when politicians' private lives become public is when they themselves, or their parties, make them an issue such as the cases of Senator Crichton-Browne and Senator Woods".

Peter Costigan

In expanding this theme Peter Costigan, well-known freelance journalist, reinforced the role of self-regulation, "If there is one immutable law governing the connection between truth and governments, it is that the latter will grasp and stretch any degree of control over the media". He argued that there is no need for government intervention as, "Whatever some people think, the majority of the men and women engaged in the craft of journalism, especially in this country, practise that craft with a dedication to seeking the truth and being fair." Mr Costigan observed that "It is the ordinary people who depend most of all on the media's responsibility and right to inform them - without unjustified invasions of the privacy of public figures".

It is true that it is the job of the media to keep the public informed. There are many judgments that an editor must make, the main two being what to keep out and what to put in. These decisions are made on, among other things, the type of publication/readership and its area of circulation. But, as Lloyd Whish-Wilson explained, "while a community may expect one thing from us, they will still go out and buy from someone else who has provided a service we chose not to provide because of what we felt were community interests." In the final analysis, it comes down to a service, to what the readership wants, and expects, from its publication.

A full transcript of proceedings has been prepared and may be purchased from the Press Council office in early December.

see also
Index on privacy material

[ return to top ]

Return to APC News 1997 Index

Documents with the icon require the Acrobat Reader, a Free Utility from Adobe. Click here for more information.