[LINK] The New Aust Press Council Squibs It

[Roger Clarke]

Back on 23 April 2012, the SMH published an advertorial insert on the NBN.

Supporters of the NBN recoiled at the uncritical gush it contained.

A complaint was made to the Press Council.

Despite the rhetoric of the last 2 years, the Press Council 
demonstrated exactly why self-regulation is, and will always remain, 
an abject failure.

The APC has bent over backwards to find a way to exonerate Fairfax 
for what was a completely obvious breach of standards.

The feat of logic goes like this:

-   Fairfax said the material was editorial, not advertorial
     (by which is meant paid content - see below)

-   APC agreed that Fairfax's use of 'Update' and 'Special Report'
     was consistent with an expectation of editorial, not advertorial fluff

     [As editorial material, it is subject to the requirement that
     reasonable steps be taken to provide balance - at least over the
     report as a whole, if not within individual articles.  See below]

-   But APC absolved Fairfax, essentially saying that:
     (a)  it was editorial, but
     (b)  the balance principle wasn't applicable
   
     It did so on the basis that:
     "the combined impact of:
     -   the supplement's physical separation from the remainder of the
         newspaper and
     -   the overall appearance and wording of the graphic effects and
         headings on the first three pages
     did make it distinctively different from the usual 'news and comment'
     pages of the newspaper"

     [In effect, the APC has created a new category of non-journalism
     that is neither editorial / news reports nor advertorial, and that
     can be invoked by newspapers in order to avoid journalism standards.]

The obiter dicta convey what we're used to seeing from organisations 
that oversee self-regulation - 'ooh, you're sailing close to the wind 
there, fellers.  See how hard we had to work in order to let you off. 
We can't *keep* doing this, you know'.

Well, what's abundantly apparent from this Adjudication is that the 
APC can, and will, continue to let the media off the hook, and hence 
will be of no use as a means of controlling media behaviour.

ACMA was caned by the media when it used similarly crooked logic to 
absolve Channel 7 in the Campbell affair.  But that was politics, 
whereas this is merely editorial dressed as marketing - or marketing 
dressed as editorial, depending on which interpretation you prefer - 
so APC may escape the belting from the media that it deserves. 

(It's difficult - but necessary - to separate this matter from the 
very recent, massive layoffs even at News, but particularly at 
Fairfax.  There are far fewer journalists left now, and - Gina or no 
Gina - the survivors will have much less 'freedom of the press' than 
in the past).

The SMH published the Adjudication here:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/press-council-adjudication-20120903-259z6.html

The APC's Adjudication is here:
http://www.presscouncil.org.au/uploads/52321/ufiles/Adjudication_1548_-_Paul_Fletcher-The_Sydney_Morning_Herald.pdf


http://www.presscouncil.org.au/general-principles/
General Principle 1:  ... balanced reporting
Publications should take reasonable steps to ensure reports are ... 
balanced. They should not deliberately mislead or misinform readers 
... by omission.

http://www.presscouncil.org.au/document-search/guideline-advertorials-june-2005/
'Advertorial' is the term for newspaper and magazine content that 
looks like editorial content but is published under a commercial 
arrangement between an advertiser, promoter or sponsor of goods 
and/or services and the publisher.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law               University of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University