Three publications have recently joined the Australian press council’s regulatory system, including the Huffington Post Australia and the Daily Mail Australia.
In an Aug. 26 press release sent to iMediaEthics, the press council announced:
“The new members are Daily Mail Australia and HuffPost Australia, recent entrants into the Australian media landscape and local offshoots of global media operations, and The Monthly Chronicle, a long-established and award-winning community newspaper in Sydney.”
The press council’s chairman David Weisbrot said in part, in the press release: “I’m really encouraged by the fact that publishers continue to value the importance of Press Council membership and of making a public commitment to excellence and social responsibility.”
The Daily Mail Australia’s managing director Peter Holder pointed to the press council’s “recent advocacy for press freedom” and “new educational initiatives” as reasons for joining.
According to Australian news site Crikey, the Daily Mail Australia and Huffington Post Australia joining “is significant because they are the first of a wave of foreign-owned websites that have expanded into Australia in recent years to join the Press Council.”
The three publications’ membership with the council brings the total of publications under regulation up to about 850, the council said in the press release. “All but one of the major newspaper and magazine publishers in Australia” subscribe to the council, it says. A list of members is here.
Monthly Chronicle editor Anthony Brewster pointed iMediaEthics to the paper’s statement about the newspaper’s membership posted on its Facebook page. It reads:
“We are pleased to announce the Monthly Chronicle is now a member of the Australian Press Council.
“In an era of dwindling local media and local storytelling, inclusion on the Council will help us ensure accuracy, credibility and most importantly garner further trust with our readers.”
“In February The Guardian Australia said it had decided not to join the Press Council arguing its own self regulation is “adequate and proportionate,'”Australian media news site Mumbrella noted.