A Daily Telegraph headline that said “Labor backs Hamas” breached press standards while failing to take into consideration “heightened community sensitivities” due to the Israel-Gaza war, the Australian Press Council has found.
In publishing the article headed “To keep peace at home, Labor backs Hamas”, the Murdoch tabloid breached the APC rules because it did not take reasonable steps to ensure factual material was accurate and not misleading, the watchdog said.
“Publications need to take great care in order to satisfy the reasonable steps standard in the context of heightened community sensitivities around the Israel/Palestine conflict and on matters of significant public interest,” the APC said.
The article reported that the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, was backing a United Nations vote calling for an “irreversible pathway” to a two-state solution in the Middle East.
The former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma told the Telegraph the move was a play for domestic votes.
“These potential changes in Australia’s UN voting pattern are against our national interests,” he was quoted saying. “They will do nothing to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East.
“All they do is reward Hamas for its terrorist acts.”
News Corp Australia defended the article by saying the headline reflected the opinion of Sharma and readers would view the headline as accurately reflecting the senator’s view.
“The publication also said that readers can discern the difference between an opposition senator’s criticism of government decision-making, as opposed to the editorial direction of the publisher,” the adjudication said.
But the APC found that given an absence of inverted commas the headline was presented as statement of fact “with the clear implication being that the Labor government is ‘backing’ Hamas”.
“The Council considers that the headline goes beyond what was said by Senator Sharma in his criticisms of the government support for a two-state-solution in the Middle East,” it said.
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“Accordingly, the Council concludes the publication failed to take reasonable steps to ensure factual material is accurate and not misleading in breach of general principle 1.”
Traditionally, it is subeditors and editors rather than reporters who write headlines.
The article, which was printed on page three and published online on 4 December, remains online. The adjudication was printed on page 14 of Wednesday’s newspaper.
News Corp is the biggest funder of the self-regulatory council, which most Australian publications belong to. Newspapers have been regulated by the industry-funded body since 1976.
But its findings have been openly mocked by journalists and publications it has found to have breached standards, including News Corp, which has allowed its journalists to call the body “foolish” and “idiots”.
Guardian Australia is not a member of the Australian Press Council but it has an independent readers’ editor who investigates complaints and publishes corrections and clarifications.
