News Corp’s the Australian has attacked the Australian Press Council and its chairman, Julian Disney, in three separate articles, saying it had lost confidence in the “erratic” self-regulatory body, which is acting as “censor-in-chief”.



“We cannot speak for our stablemates but this newspaper has lost confidence in APC chairman Julian Disney and deplores the direction in which he has taken the council,” an editorial in the Weekend Australian said.

“The APC has become erratic in its rulings, unmoored from its foundations, ponderous and serpentine in its procedures, sidetracked by its chairman’s peculiar tastes and political predilections and ineffective as a body that promotes good practice.”

The paper’s actions were triggered by the press council’s handling of a complaint about its columnist Troy Bramston’s articles about the late Labor senator Arthur Gietzelt, who died in January aged 93.

Bramston has alleged the former Labor minister had a “close relationship with, and sympathy for, the Communist party of Australia in the 1970s”, but his family has denied it.

“The complaint alleged that the articles contained “overwhelming speculative and critical comments” from Gietzelt’s opponents without balancing comments from those with contrary views,” according to the report in the Weekend Australian.

Lawyers for the paper said an adjudication hearing on the matter was “markedly hostile” to Bramston and the Weekend Australian’s editor, Michelle Gunn.

The Australian has signalled it is considering withdrawing from the press council and setting up a new body similar to the “Independent Media Council” in Western Australia, which was established by Seven West Media’s West Australian Newspapers.

The Australian’s lawyers have also asked Disney to excuse himself from considering the Bramston matter on the grounds of a potential conflict of interest arising from his own alleged contact with Gietzelt during the 1980s.

But Disney said on Monday he could not remember ever meeting the Labor politician and if he did, it was fleeting.

“The only possible contact of which I am aware is that Sen Gietzelt apparently spoke at a public meeting in 1988, at which I was also an invited speaker,” Disney said.

“If there was any contact between us it would only have been for the purpose of being introduced to each other.

“The newspaper conjectured that other contacts might have occurred more than 20 to 30 years ago, when I was president of ACOSS and a member of government advisory committees. So far as I am aware no contacts of that or any other kind occurred at any time.”



In an extraordinary move, the Australian breached a confidentiality rule by publishing details about the adjudication.

The press council said it would not dispute the Australian’s accusations because it would be a further breach of the “essential” rules of confidentiality.

“The council must not aggravate the newspaper’s breach of confidentiality by now disclosing details of the discussion in order to refute assertions about the way in which it was conducted,” the council said.

“But this does not mean, of course, that the assertions are accepted.”

In 2012 News Corp and the other major publishers, including Fairfax Media and Bauer magazines, agreed to strengthen the press council in a bid to maintain self-regulation and avoid a government crackdown on the press after the UK hacking scandal.

“After the News of the World phone-hacking scandal in Britain, Labor and the Greens tried to punish the so-called ‘hate media’,” the paper said.

The media inquiry recommended that print and online news should come under direct federal government oversight with the creation of a statutory regulator with prosecution powers.

“When that Stalinist-like lunge at the press failed, the newly installed Professor Disney’s APC received extra support from publishers keen to be transparent in the difficult political climate of the time,” the Australian said.

“The council quickly became more activist and eccentric in its decisions based on progressive opinion, taste and politics, rather than truth and fairness.”

Funding for the Australian Press Council was increased to $1.8m after the media inquiry and News Corp and Fairfax Media agreed to longer term funding commitments.

A News Corp Australia spokesman told Guardian Australia: “NewsCorp Australia has made commitments to its funding and membership of the Australian Press Council and those commitments remain in place.”