Telegraph inaccurately reported on ‘Green Lunacy’ issues, press watchdog rules
The Telegraph’s digitally altered image of Lord Mayor Clover Moore at Barangaroo
The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint about two Daily Telegraph articles for the inaccurate reporting of traffic issues in Sydney, the second tim the paper has been censured for its coverage of the topic.
Under the banner heading “Green Lunacy” the tabloid “inaccurately” reported the Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s opposition to increasing parking at the Barangaroo development and how the city council had made donations to “the Sustainable Business Council”.
In the first article headlined “Clover wants ban on Casino cars” the Lord Mayor is pictured in front of Barangaroo, dressed as a parking inspector, alongside a sign reading “No parking anytime” in a digitally altered image.
In 2012 the paper was censured for failing to distinguish facts from opinion in a series of articles on the Lord Mayor’s cycle path plans.
The latest article to be ruled against began: “She has no power over Barangaroo, but Lord Mayor Clover Moore is determined to stop cars parking there.”
A second article headed “Electric car club a shocking waste” reported Sydney City Council had paid $12,400 to the “Sustainable Business Council” alongside an image of an electric car.
Reader Stephen Pate complained the first article was inaccurate and unfair, as the mayor was raising concerns about traffic congestion, but not seeking to ban all parking at Barangaroo. And the second he said was inaccurate because the correct name of the association mentioned is Sustainable Business Australia, and it does not sell electric cars, nor is it an “electric car hub”.
The Telegraph argued anyone reading the first article in its entirety would have understood the mayor did not want to see an increase in parking spaces, and said the headline of second article referred to the view of a Liberal party member of the city council. However this was not attributed in the article and when that was pointed out, the Telegraph published a clarification.
APC principles stipulate publishers should “take reasonable steps to ensure accuracy, fairness and balance,” and “ensure headlines and captions fairly reflect the tenor of the accompanying material” as well as enable readers to recognise what is fact and what is opinion.
The Press Council ruled:
In relation to the first article, the Press Council considers that the word ‘ban’ in the headline and the words ‘stop cars from parking’ in both the first sentence and the caption to the photograph, as well as the ‘No parking anytime’ sign, clearly conveyed the inaccurate message that the Lord Mayor opposed all parking in Barangaroo.
It considers that nothing else in the article and accompanying material was sufficiently clear and prominent to correct or compensate for this inaccuracy. Accordingly, the complaint about the first article is upheld.
In relation to the second article, the Press Council considers that the publication did not take reasonable steps to avoid the errors identified by the complainant in the headline and the article. Accordingly, this aspect of the complaint is upheld.”
The ruling marks the second time The Telegraph has breached the APC’s principles in its coverage of Clover Moore and the Sydney City Council as the tabloid failed to separate fact and opinion in its campaigning coverage of Sydney’s cycle paths in 2012.
The Daily Tele isn’t the least trusted newspaper in Australia for nothing.
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The Daily Tele is a disgrace. They’ve been running campaigns attacking Disability Support Pensioners for several years, and more recently began saying that members of the Brothers For Life drug-dealing gang are on the pension so therefore it should be abolished. I have repeatedly written to the editor pleading with him to stop the campaigns because of the anxiety it is causing among people who are already emotionally frail and in some cases suicidal. Inevitably they will drop the campaign, then a few weeks later when they think I’ve gone away they will start it up again, more vicious and spiteful than ever.
If the Daily Telegraph closed down tomorrow most people would stand up and cheer. This type of yellow, cowardly tabloid journalism went out of favour a few years ago and the plummeting circulation figures bear this out.
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Wow, Limited News pushes barely informed political tripe through a “news” paper. Nobody saw this coming. Ever.
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The Tele and the Australian simply serve the bogan and bigot brigade. Fact!
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Am I the lone reader of the ‘Tele here who reads it for the jokes? The entire paper, that is…
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Bob, Anonymous, Credible Not and Steiner – stick with the ABC and Fairfax, you absolute nobs.
Also, I look forward to every upheld Press Council complaint against Fairfax getting its own Mumbrella story.
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@Robbo: Mumbrella does write stories on upheld Fairfax complaints. It’s just that there are a lot more complaints upheld against the Tele than Fairfax. Especially under Paul Whittaker’s reign.
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