The Australian Press Council this week cleared Noosa Today of Political Bias in its election coverage in response to a complaint made by Ingrid Jackson.
A couple of weeks prior to the State Government election Ms Jackson made a formal complaint to the Australian Press Council, in which she stated:
“Noosa Today did not provide fair and balanced reporting about candidates during the recent election period. Noosa Today’s editions of 4th and 11th October continued to show great bias and favouritism of one candidate Sandy Bolton, which consisted of extremely disproportional representation of that candidate in the newspaper.”
This week the Australian Press Council informed Noosa Today of the outcome of their investigation into the complaint, finding Noosa Today had provided “fair and balanced reporting over the election period”.
Here is their decision:
“After careful consideration of the complainant’s concerns and the publications response, the Council’s Secretariat has decided not to refer the complaint for further consideration. In reaching this decision, we have taken into account that the articles supplied by the publication establish it has taken reasonable steps to provide a balance of political views, policies, candidates and parties during the recent election period. On that basis, the publication has established there was fair and balanced reporting over the election period. Further, there are no identified inaccuracies in the articles. We also note the publication has editorial discretion in the selection of stories to be reported on, including the selection of letters to the editor and associated commentary.
“Accordingly, we regard the matter about which the complainant expressed concern to be unlikely to be considered a significant breach of the Council’s Standards of Practice.
“The complainant has been informed of the outcome and the complaint is now closed.”
