PRESS COUNCIL ADJUDICATION

The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint about a 27 May 2019 article.

The Press Council has considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by a front-page headline published in print by Woman’s Day on 27 May 2019 “PALACE CONFIRMS THE MARRIAGE IS OVER! WHY HARRY WAS LEFT WITH NO CHOICE BUT TO END IT”, leading on to an article on page 12 headed “THIS IS THE FINAL STRAW! Bombshell revelations about Meghan push a distraught Harry to breaking point”. The Council acknowledged that celebrity and gossip magazines are purchased for light entertainment, with readers not necessarily assuming that everything presented is factual. Accordingly, some latitude was given for factual exaggeration and inaccuracies in publications of this kind and whether statements are really “factual material” for the purposes of applying General Principle 1 and 3. The Council also acknowledged that the reasonable steps required to be accurate and not misleading in an article concerning royalty or celebrities can, depending on the circumstances, be different to those required in respect of other persons, particularly those who are not usually in the public eye. However, in this case the headline made a statement that was blatantly incorrect and not supported by the article’s contents. While an entertainment publication can be expected to use some exaggeration, the headline was expressed as an unqualified fact that the Palace had confirmed the marriage was over. The Council considered that the error in the headline was such that it was more than just an exaggeration, and that it was misleading. Accordingly, General Principle 1 and 3 were breached. Given the arguments available to the publication about the application of the Council’s Standards and that the Palace did not make a complaint to the Press Council, it was reasonable for it to not publish a correction or response during the Council’s complaints process and there was no breach of General Principles 2 or 4. For the full Adjudication, see: http:// www.presscouncil.org.au/documentsearch/adj-1773.