Perth Lord Mayor Dr Peter Nattrass has thrown his support behind Attorney General Jim McGinty's criticism of The West Australian and its editor, Paul Armstrong, saying the debate was about the standard of reporting in WA.
Perth Lord Mayor Dr Peter Nattrass has thrown his support behind Attorney General Jim McGinty's criticism of The West Australian and its editor, Paul Armstrong, saying the debate was about the standard of reporting in WA.
Mr McGinty has threatened to hold up so-called shield laws designed to protect journalists and their sources across the nation.
The Attorney-General has reportedly claimed The West's reporting standards were so bad that he did not believe their journalists deserved protection.
The Perth Lord Mayor has been a long-running critic of the daily newspaper, dating back well before the current editorship of Paul Armstrong.
The full text of Dr Nattrass' announcement - with exception of the first paragraph, which is paraphrased above - is pasted below:
Dr Nattrass said any editor who sends an edict to his staff demanding that their stories highlight conflict, controversy and confrontation was clearly an editor that showed little interest in balanced, ethical reporting.
Paul Armstrong's email, leaked to and reported in the Australian newspaper (4 November 2004) also instructed his journalists to be provocative in the opening paragraphs, and indicated to them that if they were not prepared to do this they were "not wanted" and should "find a job elsewhere," or "steps will be taken to ensure they did not stay."
The Lord Mayor said the Editor should appreciate this debate was not about the standard of health care in Western Australia, nor was it about whether one liked the Editor, nor was it about whether a public official could "take" criticism, it was solely about the standard of journalism and whether it was informed, balanced and fair.
In commenting on the proposed "Shield" laws to protect journalists from revealing their sources, Dr Nattrass said he could fully understand Mr McGinty's view.
Dr Nattrass said: "Such laws were a privilege that should come only with responsible balance journalism - something the West had a record of failing in."
He went on to say that he believed that if there were a risk the laws would protect journalists who write misleading and deceptive articles, it should come together with a provision similar to Section 52 of the Trade Practices Act which penalises corporations for engaging in such conduct.
The Lord Mayor said leadership was about saying what you think and he admired Minister McGinty for expressing his view and noted that his prediction yesterday, that he would "pay the price" for his criticism of the editor, eventuated in today's edition.
He concluded by saying that in his view the people of Perth had every reason to be concerned asbout the deteriorating standards of reporting in our only daily newspaper; and if his feedback from the people were correct the Board of Management should be addressing it.
