Telegraph failed to separate fact from opinion in cycle path coverage, rules press watchdog

The Daily Telegraph in Sydney breached the Australian Press Council’s principles on separating fact and opinion in its campaigning coverage of Sydney’s cycle paths.

The APC ruledin relation to 17 articles relating to Sydney Mayor Clover Moore, who is also a state MP. The coverage focused on the bike lanes and also on her dual political roles.

The complainant said the newspaper had provided unfair and unbalanced coverage of both issues.

The newspaper argued that it was entitled to campaign on both topics.

The APC ruled:

“The Press Council emphasises that publications are entitled to express strong opinions on issues and to use their editorials and opinion spaces for that purpose. This advocacy can be so vigorous and sustained as to constitute a campaign, provided that it complies with the Council’s principles which, for example, require fact and opinion to be clearly separated and headlines to fairly reflect the tenor of the accompanying article.

“The Council has concluded that the headlines mentioned above breached these principles because they expressed the newspaper’s opinions rather than being a summary of facts reported in the accompanying news story. The inclusion in a news story of words such as “crazy council policies”, “junket” and “diva-like list of demands” which were not attributed to any sources also failed to separate fact from opinion. Accordingly, the complaint is upheld on these grounds.”

However, the APC also ruled: “The Council does not consider that the newspaper’s overall coverage has been sufficiently unfair and unbalanced as to constitute a breach of the Council’s principles and, therefore, this aspect of the complaint is not upheld.”

When Tele editor Paul Whittaker discussed the newspaper with Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes a few weeks ago, he was robust in his defence of the newspaper’s campaigning style, arguing that CBD did not stand for “Central Bike Riding District”:

The APC is a voluntary body funded by the press itself. Other than publishing the ruling, The Tele will face no further punishment.

Late last year,the APC ruled that the Tele had similarly breached its principlesin its campaigning coverage of the National Broadband Network. Yesterday The Tele published an APC ruling thatThe Tele’s headlines did not separate fact from opinion in its coverage of asylum seekers. A fortnight ago sister titlethe Sunday Telegraph was found to have invaded the privacy of former Labor leader Mark Latham’s children.

The articles: