Media Standards and Principles

 

The Australian Press Council (APC)

 

The Australian Press Council (APC) was established in 1976 after the Federal Government began preparation of legislation to create a government authority to ensure accountability.  The APC is responsible for promoting good standards of media practice, community access to information of public interest and freedom of expression through the media and this includes coverage of issues around medical cannabis.

 

The Council is funded by its publisher members in the newspaper and magazine industries and relies on publishers and editors to respect the Council's standards and decisions, to voluntarily adhere to standards of good practice and to publish adjudications that result from complaints made against them.

 

It has no legal or legislative power to fine or penalise the press.

 

Standards of Good Media Practice

 

The Council's standards of good media practice are contained in its Statements of Principles, Specific Standards and Advisory Guidelines. 

 

Statement of Principles

 

The Council's Statements of Principles are binding on all publications which are subject to its jurisdiction. They comprise: Council's Standards of Practice relating to print and online publishing are contained in:

 

• the Statement of General Principles; and

• the Statement of Privacy Principles.

 

The Statements of Principles are interpreted and applied to by the Council responding to particular complaints. Along with the Specific Standards, they form the Council's Standards of Practice.

 

The Statement of General Principles

Publications are free to publish as they wish by reporting facts and expressing opinions, provided they take reasonable steps to comply with the following Principles and the Council’s other Standards of Practice:

 

Accuracy and clarity

 

1. Ensure that factual material in news reports and elsewhere is accurate and not misleading, and is distinguishable from other material such as opinion.

 

2. Provide a correction or other adequate remedial action if published material is significantly inaccurate or misleading.

 

Fairness and balance

 

3. Ensure that factual material is presented with reasonable fairness and balance, and that writers’ expressions of opinion are not based on significantly inaccurate factual material or omission of key facts.

 

4. Ensure that where material refers adversely to a person, a fair opportunity is given for subsequent publication of a reply if that is reasonably necessary to address a possible breach of General Principle 3.

 

Privacy and avoidance of harm

 

5. Avoid intruding on a person’s reasonable expectations of privacy unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest. 

 

6. Avoid causing or contributing materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest.

 

Integrity and transparency

 

7. Avoid publishing material which has been gathered by deceptive or unfair means, unless doing so is sufficiently in the public interest. 

 

8. Ensure that conflicts of interests are avoided or adequately disclosed, and that they do not influence published material.

The Statement of Privacy Principles

 

These cover the following areas:

 

• Collection of personal information

• Use and disclosure of personal information

• Quality of personal information

• Security of personal information

• Anonymity of sources

• Correction, fairness and balance

• Sensitive personal information

 

The standards are applied when considering complaints and used as the basis for statements by Council representatives about good media practice when addressing industry, journalism students and the broader community.

 

Specific Standards on Contacting Patients

 

Specific Standards on Contacting Patients aim to facilitate media contact with people in hospitals and residential care facilities while also ensuring respect for the health, dignity and privacy of those people and their families and for the general provision of care on the premises and in particular aim to:

 

 

• prevent unreasonable exclusion of journalists from hospitals;

• promote a co-operative approach between journalists and hospitals;

• prevent inappropriate contact by journalists with a patient who is in a vulnerable position

• prevent undue intrusion by journalists on other patients and hospital staff.

 

Complaints

 

The council is also the principal body with responsibility for responding to complaints about Australian newspapers, magazines and associated digital outlets and considers complaints and this extends to all print publications and related digital outlets such as websites of the publishers which are "constituent bodies" of the Council.  These publications comprise about 90 percent of all print and online outlets in Australia that represent some 850 mastheads.

 

The Council receives more that 700 complaints each year. About three-quarters of those are fully pursued and result in a correction, apology or some other form of action being taken.

 

Where the complaint is resolved through formal adjudication the relevant publisher is required to publish the adjudication promptly and with due prominence.

 

Click this link to learn more at the APC website: