ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016 No
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ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016 No. 40 The Australian Press Council Address: Level 6, 309 Kent Street Sydney 2000 Phone: (02) 9261 1930 or 1800 025 712 Fax: (02) 9267 6826 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.presscouncil.org.au ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016 Annual Report No. 40 Year ending 30 June 2016 Level 6, 309 Kent Street SYDNEY NSW 2000 Australia Telephone: (02) 9261 1930 1 800 025 712 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.presscouncil.org.au ISSN 0156-1308 Chair’s Foreword This Annual Report covers the financial year 2015-2016, a period characterised both by consolidation and remarkable change. First and foremost, the Australian Press Council celebrated its 40th anniversary with a major international conference on press freedom in Sydney in May 2016. The conference was a huge success, bringing together all parts of the news media in Australia to discuss the critical issues facing us. The Conference was very well-supported by Council members and other sponsors, enabling us to fly in a number of international journalism stars to add a richness and gravitas to the occasion. (See Chapter 5 and Appendix 6.) When the Council was first established in 1976, it was a fragile body. Few paediatricians would have given it 40 years or more to live. There have certainly been ups and down over the decades, but the Council is now firmly fixed in the media landscape and playing a very active and positive role in the interests of both publishers and the general community. The Press Council’s first Strategic Plan All Press Council members and Secretariat staff engaged in a highly collegial process to develop, workshop and finally approve the organisation’s first ever Strategic Plan, covering 2016-2020. The document itself is important and will be influential, but at least as critical was the high level of good will, energy and constructive engagement that went into its making. In effect, the Strategic Plan has two parts. The first is more reflective and high level, clarifying the Council’s mission, identifying the key challenges and opportunities, and specifying the organisational traits necessary to enable success. The second part identifies our three core objectives (developing and refining the standards of practice; effective complaints-handling; and vigorous advocacy for free speech and press freedom) and the strategies for meeting them. The Strategic Plan crystallises and formalises what I have been publicly emphasising since I assumed my role as the Chair: the prevailing ethos must be that we are all—publishers, editors, journalists, Council staff and readers—part of a shared enterprise to maintain high standards of journalism and to do everything we possibly can to ensure a free and vigorous press. The Press Council’s first Reconciliation Action Plan In this reporting period, the Press Council also engaged in a consultative process to develop the organisation’s first (and long overdue) Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which was submitted to Reconciliation Australia for endorsement. The RAP notes that Australia’s news media routinely identify and report on the systemic disadvantages experienced by most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particularly those living in remote areas, including in relation to poor health outcomes, lower than desirable educational outcomes and unconscionable arrest and incarceration rates. The provision of this sort of material to the general community is essential in highlighting the critical need for policies and programs aimed at “closing the gap” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Refining the complaints-handling process The Press Council seeks to provide an important service to the community and the industry by: (a) resolving the concerns of complainants and delivering targeted remedies in a low cost, low risk system; and (b) holding the media to account and working with the industry to lift standards and performance. A detailed breakdown of the complaints experience in this reporting year is provided elsewhere in this Report. In common with other complaints-handling bodies, the Council is continuously seeking to refine its processes to make them more streamlined and efficient, and more responsive to feedback from both complainants and publications, even as the number and complexity of complaints continue to grow. Two major innovations were launched this year to facilitate more efficient complaints-handling and better reporting. First, the Council selected, purchased and introduced a completely new, information management and database system to track all complaints, from initial reception to final disposition. This 3 new Resolve software (which replaces the previous system that required cutting and pasting of information across a number of different databases and maintaining copious paper-based files) should promote much more efficient and consistent handling of complaints, as well as facilitating more sophisticated reporting and analysis. Second, the Press Council has instituted a second track to the adjudication system, with a new Direct Adjudication available in suitable matters, in which complaints can be determined by a three-person panel solely on the papers, rather than requiring the parties to participate. The aim is to provide greater speed and flexibility in the disposition of complaints that require an adjudicated outcome, but do not contain particularly novel or complex issues. Monitoring and improving the Standards of Practice The Council is committed to learning from the complaints-handling experience and any other feedback indicating that changing technology, laws or community expectations or sensibilities mean that Council should review its Standards of Practice and perhaps develop new Specific Standards, guidelines, educational programs, or a combination of those things. In March 2016, Australian Press Council issued a comprehensive Advisory Guideline for the Reporting of Family and Domestic Violence, aimed at helping journalists ensure that they produce accurate, balanced and respectful articles about this crucially important subject. Having completed that project, the Press Council is now looking at two other areas that are topical, of community concern, and might benefit from a new guideline, standard or educational initiative: (a) the publication of “sponsored content” or “native advertising”, and the extent to which this material is distinguished from other editorial content; and (b) reporting involving children, which includes such issues as interviewing children without their parents’ or guardians’ presence or consent, the publication of photographs of children in distress or in extremis, and children’s reasonable expectations of privacy— generally and in relation to social media. Importantly, when reviewing its Guidelines, it was decided that a large number of Advisory Guidelines also needed attention, as they appeared to be out of date or out of alignment with the wording of the new General Principles, and thus required either updating or deletion. The Council is currently undertaking this review of all extant Advisory Guidelines and policy documents. Increasing and broadening the membership Unlike the position with regard to radio and television broadcasters, who are obliged to obtain a government licence and are subject to regulation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), there is no legal compulsion for a publisher to join the Press Council. In these circumstances, the Council is justifiably proud of its large and steadily growing membership, with over 900 mastheads (print and online) representing 95 per cent of print circulation (all but one of the major newspaper and magazine publishers in Australia), their associated online websites, and most of the leading online-only news and current affairs sites. This now also includes some of the growing number of international publications that have recently established an Australian presence, such as the Daily Mail Online (UK-based) and the Huffington Post (US- based). However, there is also significant frustration that important new entrants to the Australian media market, such as the Guardian Australia, Buzzfeed, Mashable, Junkee and others have not joined the Press Council. These media operations benefit greatly from the work of the Press Council via its Standards of Practice, dealing with complaints from the public, advocating strongly for freedom of the press and— perhaps most importantly—forestalling calls for the Commonwealth Government to formally regulate the press, which would surely arise and intensify if the Press Council was not seen to be doing an effective job in this area. Yet the new entrants appear content to reap these benefits without contributing at all to the financial and intellectual resources necessary for the Press Council to do its work. The most serious gap in the Press Council’s membership, however, is a product of its historical failure to engage fully with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander press and the thriving multicultural or “ethnic” 4 press that reflects the demography and vibrancy of Australia’s multicultural society, in which one in every four Australians was born overseas. The Council is now committed to redressing this omission, and is putting significant time and energy into drawing new members into the fold. In this reporting period, the Council has run a high profile event in Sydney with representatives of Australian Chinese media and Asian-Australian political and community leaders; admitted as a new member the