The Australian Press Council (APC) has slapped The Daily Telegraph with the second negative ruling in as many days, stating headlines about Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore “failed to separate fact from opinion”.
The Telegraph ran headlines about Moore and her introduction of bicycle lanes to Sydney last year including: “More cycleway madness in CBD thanks to Lord Mayor Clover Moore” and “Clover Moore wanted feedback on her bike paths disaster - we can tell her now: TEAR THEM UP”.
Complaints related to a series of 17 articles run by the paper in print and online last year, which were stated to be unbalanced and did not allow Moore proper opportunity to respond.
Phrases run within the articles also formed part of the complaint: "Ms Moore's war against cars", "the most prominent double-dipping MP", and "Clover Moore's crazy council policies", and words describing Ms Moore's activities and attitudes such as "junket", "jaunt" and a "diva-like list of demands".
The masthead responded to the complaint by arguing “the cycle lane issue was a matter of public interest and some of the headlines reflected the views which were reported in the accompanying articles.” The paper also stated it was “entitled” to disagree publicly with Moore's platform. Opinion pieces and letters written by Moore published in the Telegraph after the date of the complaint have been taken into the account by the APC.
The APC ruled headlines breached principles as they reflected the opinions of the newspaper rather than summarising the facts presented in the accompanying stories and were “unfair” and “imbalanced”. Some negative phrases included in the coverage were not attributed to any sources and were also found to express opinion rather than fact.
However, the APC did not find the paper's overall coverage to be “sufficiently unfair and unbalanced as to constitute a breach of the Council’s principles”.
This ruling follows yesterday's decision the paper's coverage about asylum seekers was “gravely inaccurate, unfair and offensive.”
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