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Press Council Adjudications 14 Australian Press Council News, August 1999 PRESS COUNCIL ADJUDICATIONS had suggested that an apology be given - or that the then police minister and ADJUDICATION NO. 1023 rather it published a statement from the premier, Sir Robert Askin, had "aided ABA that it had not asked for an apology. and abetted" Mr Allan in his attempts to This was technically correct in that the ABA discredit Mr Arantz. The Press Council has dismissed a had not used its compulsory power to direct The paper declares that Mr Reading, who complaint brought by the Foundation that an apology be given. Rather it had for Humanity's Adulthood about a story is a former press secretary to Sir Robert suggested that the ABC so act. The Council Askin and well-known for his defence of published in The Sydney Morning considers that the article could give the Herald on 17 October 1998. Sir Robert's reputation, is wrong on all wrong impression of an important aspect of three points. The Foundation is a registered charity the ABA's action. It could be argued that the that was founded to support the ideas and ABA's suggestion that an apology be given The arguments over the case have been work of biologist Jeremy Griffith which was a significant act on its part. canvassed many times in the media, and deal with the reconciliation of science and there seems little point in the Press Council Had the paper noted the suggestion, its attempting any ab initio re-assessment at religion. The Foundation has been the summary would have been more complete. subject of criticism over an extended this late stage. However, there are two However, the paper's report was accurate as salient points: period by the Reverend Dr David Millikan, far as it went. a Uniting Church minister. This criticism • Mr Allan took early retirement, formed the basis of a Four Corners The repetition of the statements relating to allegedly forced to do so over the program on the ABC in 1995. The the Foundation that were made in the Four case, and Sir Robert Askin's Foundation sought review of the program Comers program were relevant to the story. reputation was tarnished. by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. The paper also published the ABA's criticism of them. The Council does not consider that • Mr Arantz was "notionally The ABA released a decision in 1998 in reinstated", received an ex-gratia which it sustained the majority of the the publication of the statements complained about breach Council principles. payment of $250,000, and has been complaints about the program made by awarded posthumously the the Foundation, it wrote separately to the The Foundation objected to Dr Millikan Commissioner's Commendation. ABC saying "out of fairness to the being interviewed and to his comments complainant it would be appropriate for relating to the Foundation being published. The Sydney Morning Herald was justified the ABC to broadcast some form of an It said that it would not have co-operated in publishing the story as it did. It is clear apology to the Foundation". This was the with the paper if it had known that Dr that today's appropriate authorities accept first occasion on which the ABA had taken Millikan would also be interviewed. The that Mr Arantz was seriously mistreated such a step. It has never exercised its paper said that the interview was intended by those in charge in 1971; and at the head power to make a formal recommendation to provi de balance for the story. The Council of those in charge were the then police to the ABC. believes that the paper acted reasonably and commissioner, Mr Allan, and the then police minister, Sir Robert Askin. Following this ruling, the Foundation this aspect of the complaint is also dismissed. placed advertisements in a number of Mr Reading further complains that the newspapers that, along with announcing paper refused to publish a letter from him the launch of its website, referred to the ADJUDICATION NO* 1024 attempting to refute the statements made ABA's decision and claimed - erroneously about Mr Allan and Sir Robert Askin. The - that the ABA had asked the ABC to paper answers that Mr Reading's defence apologise to the Foundation. The ad The Press Council has dismissed a of the Askin era is well known and has criticised the ABC for failing to issue an complaint from Geoffrey Reading against been well covered. Further, the paper — apology. The Sydney Morning Herald The Sydney Morning Herald over an article and apparently the concerned authorities story reported these events but it also published on 3 December 1998 on the today — has made its judgments and sees summarised aspects of the Four Comers posthumous award of a high police honour no reason to revise them. program and included comments from to a detective who was sacked 27 years ago. The Press Council accepts that position. Dr Millikan and the ABC. The detective, Philip Arantz, was fired for The Foundation's complaint is directed passing to the Herald in 1971 computer- primarily to four matters: the headlines based information allegedly showing that ADJUDICATION NO. 1025 on both the first edition and the late edition; NSW crime clear-up figures had been the accuracy of the reporting of the ABA falsified for years. This whistle-blowing decision; the repetition of allegations about exercise resulted, as well as his dismissal, in The Australian Press Council has upheld the Foundation that were made in the him being accused of being mad and a complaint by the Federal Council of Four Comers program; and the paper's spending three days in a psychiatric unit Polish Associations of Australia against action in seeking comments from Dr proving he was sane. the Australian newspaper's magazine Millikan. Mr Arantz, who died in March 1998 aged 68, over its reference to "a Polish The Council considers that the headlines never served again, although he was concentration camp". "'Adult' philosopher spits the dummy "notionally reinstated" in the police force in While it was only a tangential reference in over TV expose" (first edition) and "The the 1980s and was given an ex-gratia a long article about the Vatican and its prophet of Adulthood is back, and on the payment of $250,000 but not a pension. His attitudes to sainthood, the reference did attack" (late edition), reflected its content widow has now received on his behalf the cause offence to Polish Australians and and could not be considered unfair or Police Commissioner's Commendation for the newspaper failed to take adequate offensive to Mr Griffith. Outstanding Service. action to redress the offence. The summary of the ABA decision quoted In his complaint, Mr Reading disputes that The editor-in-chief maintained that its findings that were favourable to the the crime figures were falsified, or that the readers would have known the historical Foundation and critical of the program. then police commissioner, NTW Allan, had context of the reference, in that the However, it did not indicate that the ABA seriously suggested that Mr Arantz was mad, concentration camps on Polish soil during Australian Press Council News, August 1999 15 the Second World War were in fact set up however, that she was unwilling at that and run by Nazi Germany. For that reason, ADJUDICATION NO. 1027 stage to make any firm commitments to the newspaper did not publish any future plans. correction or apology. The Press Council has dismissed a The Council believes great care is required However, the Council finds that the words complaint against The Daily Mercury by in deciding the extent to which private were ambiguous and the reference the Mackay District Health Service, about individuals' circumstances should be offensive to Polish Australians. It would the publication of a photograph, and the exposed to illustrate issues of public have been harmfully misleading to younger methods used to obtain it, for a report on a concern. In this instance however, it is readers and others whose knowledge of temporary aged care facility in the city's difficult to see how the five residents, the Second World War is hazy or non­ base hospital. whose faces were obscured in the existent. photograph, would have suffered any The front-page report ("Aged Care Scandal. detriment from its publication, whether The newspaper contended the complaint Concerned staff risk jobs to expose hospital or not they consented to its being taken. was only an argument about words. It was conditions") described the facility as "a sad, more than that and the Press Council dark and crowded place without identity or upholds the complaint because of the direction". It listed concerns of "a small newspaper's failure to redress the hurtful delegation of hospital staff" about safety ADJUDICATION NO. 1028 mistake. and care shortcomings attributable to physical conditions in the facility. The However, it does reject the complainant's The Press Council has dismissed a photograph, showing a group of five further argument that the newspaper was complaint from Neil Jenkins against The residents in a TV room, was modified to conducting a deliberate campaign of Herald Sun, Melbourne. slander against Poles and Polish obscure their faces. The article under the by-line of the paper's Australians. There is no evidence of that The report appeared two days after a visit to Chief Police Reporter, entitled "Pocketful and the newspaper has, in fact, on at least Mackay by Queensland Cabinet Ministers, of Menace", is an analysis of the issues one earlier occasion apologised for a similar including the Health Minister.
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