The Australian Press Council has considered a complaint about the photograph and caption accompanying an article headed, Oil shock could deliver the threat debt seemed to pose, in The Sydney Morning Herald on 9 January 2012.
The photograph showed a man with raised arms, one of which held a weapon aloft, standing by a car in front of an oil refinery. The caption read "Scarcely noticed … the Arab Spring pushed up oil prices", an apparent reference to a claim in the article that the biggest cause of recent oil price increases was the Arab Spring and the disruption to Libyan oil supplies.
Peter Geelan-Small complained that the caption did not state that the photograph related to the popular revolt in Libya and therefore the effect of the photograph was to reinforce a stereotype that Arabs are potentially violent and antagonistic to Western interests. He also said the photograph and caption did not fairly represent the tenor and content of the article.
The newspaper said the photograph showed the capture of an oil refinery by forces opposing the Gaddafi regime in Libya. It said this link with the Arab Spring and the impact on refineries related to the references to that issue in the article and did not in any way convey a negative view about Arabs.
The Press Council has concluded that the photograph and caption reasonably reflected one aspect of the article and was not inconsistent with the remainder. It also concluded that they did not convey a negative view of the person depicted or of Arabs. Accordingly, the complaint is not upheld.
Addendum
(not required for publication by the newspaper):
Mr Geelan-Small complained that the article incorrectly implied that Iran is an Arab country. The Council did not agree that the article carried such an implication. He also complained that the photograph was clearly fabricated. The newspaper pointed out the published attribution to Reuters and said it has no reason to suspect fabrication of the photograph, which it published unaltered. The Council could see no grounds for concluding that the photograph was fabricated.
Relevant Council Standards
(not required for publication by the newspaper):
This adjudication applies the Council’s General Principle 6: "Publications are free to advocate their own views and publish the bylined opinions of others, as long as readers can recognise what is fact and what is opinion. Relevant facts should not be misrepresented or suppressed, headlines and captions should fairly reflect the tenor of an article and readers should be advised of any manipulation of images and potential conflicts of interest".