Press Council records ‘considerable concern’ over climate change story handling in The Australian

The Australian Press Council (APC) has taken the unusual step of issuing “an expression of considerable concern on its findings” in a ruling against an article and editorial about climate change in The Australian, whilst an article linking a politician to a brothel in the Sydney Morning Herald has also been censured.

In the ruling which was made public today the APC upheld complaints over an article and editorial in The Australian over incorrect reporting on the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published in September last year.

The council expressed concerns over what it argues were delays in the acknowledgement of error and expressions of regret with the Council ruling: “They should have been made very much earlier, and made directly to the publication’s readers in a frank and specific manner.”

Today The Sydney Morning Herald also published a ruling after the APC found it “inaccurately and unfairly” linked then treasurer Chris Bowen with Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone, who was landlord of a business which on certain occasions had been found to be illegally offering sexual services, in a report published just before last year’s federal election.