Complaints not adjudicated: 2003-2004

The Council receives about 5 inquiries, by phone or email, for every formal written complaint. It receive 416 written complaints in the reporting year. Here's how the procedures work and what happened to those formal complaints.

17.4 per cent were refused as inappropriate. The Council is only concerned with allegations that journalistic ethics have been breached in the publication (or non-publication) of editorial material. It judges such allegations on the basis of the Statement of Principles it espouses, a set of principles that have been developed in co-operation with the press and to which it has agreed. The mere fact that someone writes to the Council does not mean that the complaint will be accepted for processing. The Executive Secretary is given a discretion to refuse complaints. He is obliged to explain why. For example, in normal circumstances, there is no complaint arising from the accurate and balanced reporting of matters raised in an open court. Nor is it a breach of the Council's principles that a complainant disagrees with an opinion expressed in an editorial, a cartoon or a clearly marked by-lined opinion piece. Nor are all allegations of 'vilification' or 'personal attack' found to be sustained by the Executive Secretary. Third party complaints which might invade another's privacy without raising a significant issue of principle are also rejected.

Complainants who want to press ahead with a complaint can appeal the Executive Secretary's discretion to the Complaints Committee which decides if the particular matter should be accepted for processing. The committee occasionally overturns the Executive Secretary's ruling.

Another 17.1 per cent were not dealt with for various reasons including:

Referred to a more appropriate body. The complainant is referred to various bodies such as the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (when an individual journalist, not the newspaper, is the subject of complaint) or the Office of Film and Literaure Classification (when the matter concerns attempts to censor material) when appropriate.

Not followed up: when the Executive Secretary seeks additional information and the complainant does not provide it.

Withdrawn for legal reasons. The Council sometimes requests that the complainant sign a legal waiver. Not all complainants are required to sign a waiver but, in instances where it appears to the office or the publication that a complaint could be the subject of legal action, or there is the threat of legal action, such waivers are sought. Some complainants sign the waiver, and proceed with their complaint through the Council, often to a mediated settlement, sometimes to an adjudication. Others choose to reserve their legal rights. Local government candidates, people appearing before the courts, and complainants wishing monetary compensation make up the majority of complainants who reserve their legal rights.

All the rest (over 60 per cent) were accepted for processing. This means that the office contacted the publication involved, either seeking to mediate a settlement or seeking the newspaper's formal response.

About 46.9 per cent of complaints were mediated to a mutually acceptable settlement or withdrawn by the complainant.

The Council places a strong emphasis on mediation of complaints and both the Executive Secretary and the Office Manager are trained mediators. In 1999-2000, the Council added a further mediation option: public member mediation. The Council's public members are drawn from every state and provide a base for local mediation of complaints where the office has been unable to bring the parties together. The public members are trained for this role and complainants are offered their services in cases where there remains a chance for an agreed settlement even after the publication's initial response to the complaint. Both parties have to then agree to participate in the mediation. Several matters have now been settled by public member mediation. Each issue of the APC News carries details of some of the matters settled by the office or by public members through mediation.

Sometimes, however, all a complainant wants is a response to his or her concern. Many of those who approach the Council have tried first to have their concern ameliorated direct with the publication and received no response. When the publication sends a formal or informal written response to the Council, explaining its reasons for publishing, or not publishing, the material concerned, and this is passed along to the complainant, many are happy to let the matter rest, satisfied that their concern has been acknowledged. Others feel that there is no point in taking the matter further once the newspaper has acknowledged the fact that there was a concern. Such complaints are recorded as "withdrawn" and represent, in a vast majority of cases, a "successful" outcome to the complaint.

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View the details of complaints not adjudicated for each of the following years:

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