ANNUAL REPORT 2014-2015 No. 39 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 2014-2015 Annual Report No. 39 Year ending 30 June 2015 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 Photo credits Page 2: Britta Campion/Newspix Pages 12,19,20,26,42: Leanne Ho ISSN 0156-1308 Chair’s Foreword It was a great honour and a privilege to be appointed the eighth Chair of the Australian Press Council on 28 November 2014, officially taking up the office on 1 March 2015. As foreshadowed in the Annual Report for 2013-14, the period covered in this Report was one of significant achievement but also considerable tumult. Two Council resolutions relevant to this are set out in Appendix 4. Happily, I can report that the Council has now returned to operating in a very harmonious and productive manner, with few if any unwanted distractions. As I have been strongly and publicly emphasising, the prevailing ethos must be that we are all part of a shared enterprise to maintain high standards of journalism, maintain a high level of public confidence in those standards, and do everything possible to ensure a free and effective press. As a new Chair of the Council and new to the industry, much of the first six months of 2015 was devoted to learning the ropes and meeting with our publisher members, editors, leading journalists, senior officers of the MEAA (the union to which most journalists belong) and the Walkley Foundation, media and communications academics and educators, and members of the NGOs, peak associations, and community groups with which the Council interacts. The body of this report contains the fundamental information about the Council’s operations in 2014- 2015, including membership of the governing body and its various committees; the staffing profile of the Secretariat; the basic facts and figures about complaints-handling (our core function); the development of standards and policy; finances; and other key activities. We have endeavoured to make this Annual Report easier and more rewarding to read. We have increased the use of charts, tables, graphs and photos in order to present the information in a more engaging and helpful way. With that essential information already included, this Foreword will focus on a few key areas that I believe are worth highlighting. Improvements to the complaints-handling process Although there is always room for improvement, the Council does a good job on behalf of the community 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. Less than 10 per cent of complaints are referred to the Adjudication Panel for determination, with around 75 per cent of those complaints fully or partly upheld. This pattern is broadly consistent with other industry complaints-handling schemes, ombudsman’s offices and public regulators in Australia and overseas. It is also broadly consistent with the general legal system, in which the overwhelming number of civil claims and criminal charges are disposed of consensually or summarily, with only a few per cent of the most serious, complex and intractable matters reaching the “pointy end” of the system. The Adjudication Panel is independent and operates without fear or favour. Each Panel session is currently chaired by me or one of our distinguished Vice-Chairs: the Hon John Doyle AC, the former Chief Justice of South Australia, and Julian Gardner AM, formerly Public Advocate and Director of Legal Aid in Victoria. Having observed the Adjudication Panels in action, I am constantly impressed by the diligence, seriousness and judgment of Panel members. It is a cost-free jurisdiction for complainants, and a very cost-effective process for publishers, who would otherwise bear the risks of huge legal costs and damages and wasted senior staff time in defamation actions and related legal proceedings. As detailed elsewhere in this Report, the Council is continuously seeking to refine its processes to make them more streamlined and efficient, and more responsive to feedback from complainants and publications. 3 Promoting a collegial, learning culture As a body with a large mandate but limited resources, the Press Council must constantly work to ensure that its culture is collegial and intelligent, continually learns from experience—both good and bad—and, as mentioned, fosters the view that the maintenance of high standards in the media is a shared enterprise. While the need to resolve complaints will always remain a core function, the Council is developing and testing other strategies for achieving industry-wide improvement, and reassuring the community that this is the case. For example, Council is now being informed more regularly and more fully of the broad patterns of complaints received and the areas in which there appear to be emerging community concerns or sensitivities. Council can then respond to this experience by developing new Specific Standards, or by developing best practice guidelines and other guidance material, or by developing educational and training materials, or some combination of those things, as appropriate to the particular circumstances. There is considerable interest and enthusiasm from newspaper and online editors and managers in the Council partnering in, developing or directly providing education and training programs for working journalists, cadets and others on the Council’s Standards of Practice and on emerging media law issues, such as metadata retention, secrecy laws, whistleblower laws, and anti-terrorism laws that may inadvertently entangle journalists. Strategic planning and organisational reviews With changes in Secretariat personnel, a new Chair and the milestone of the Council’s 40th Anniversary approaching in 2016, we have embarked on a number of important planning and review exercises. These include a review of the Council’s staffing structure, duty statements, reporting lines and HR policies; a review of the effectiveness of our corporate governance mechanisms; and the development of the Council’s first Strategic Plan, to commence in 2016. The Standards of Practice In June 2014, after a substantial period of consultation and refinement, the Press Council approved a revised set of eight General Principles that set out the basic standards of practice expected of member publications (commencing on 1 August 2014). There is general agreement that the General Principles are now in excellent shape: they are clear and concise, sensible and practical, and compliance should not be onerous or unnatural for working journalists, even under pressure. The General Principles have been supplemented by the development of a number of Specific Standards, where appropriate, to be applied in defined circumstances. Again, as part of the attempt to learn from the complaints-handling experience and other feedback, Council may consider from time to time developing new Specific Standards, or guidance, or educational programs. Broadening the membership The Press Council is justifiably proud of the breadth and depth of its membership, encompassing all but one of the major newspaper and magazine publishers in Australia — over 850 mastheads and around 95 per cent of circulation. The Council has also done a reasonably good job in accommodating the digital revolution, both in terms of embracing the associated online websites of traditional/mainstream publishers, as well as the new generation of online-only publishers. Of the top 20 most-visited online news and current affairs sites, about four-fifths are members of the Press Council (for example ninemsn, mUmBRELLA, New Matilda, The New Daily and Crikey, as well as the online operations of News Corp Australia and Fairfax Media) and we are in active talks with a number of possible new entrants. However, there is still one surprising gap in the Council’s membership: the thriving multicultural or “ethnic” press that reflects the reality and vibrancy of our society, in which one in four Australians was born overseas. The Council is now committed to redressing this omission. 4 This growth is not only important for the continued intellectual and financial vitality of the Council, but it also underpins the Council’s very existence. The Council has been successful to date in reassuring the community, and therefore the Commonwealth Government, that there is no need for a formal regulatory apparatus to deal with the press in the manner that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) licenses and regulates radio and TV broadcasters. There is a strong and coherent view among publications, shared by civil libertarians, that more government intervention would imperil freedom of the press and free speech in Australia. Consequently, the Press Council must be able to demonstrate not only its effectiveness in maintaining high standards of journalism, but also that it effectively covers the whole field. Advocacy for free speech and freedom of the press The first Chair of the Press Council, retired High Court Justice Sir Frank Kitto, was of the view that the Council’s main role in advancing freedom of the press should be its complaints-handling function, which ensures public confidence in the integrity and standard of media practice. But he also acknowledged that the Council needed to be an advocate for press freedom. Times have changed, and the current circumstances require more emphasis on this advocacy responsibility. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press may have a strong cultural hold in Australia, but in the absence of entrenched constitutional or statutory protection they rest on flimsy legal foundations. Unfortunately, the traditionally fine balance has been tipping steadily against freedom in recent times.