Glenn Ashton vs. Business Report

SUMMARY

The headline to the opinion piece in dispute read, BBC brought low by its prejudice against climate change sceptics (published on 4 May 2016).

This ruling by Press Ombud Johan Retief was based on the Press Code that was in effect before 30 September 2022.

Business Report published an opinion piece that stated that climate change was a myth.

Glenn Ashton complained that this piece should never have been published and that it had lowered the publication’s public image.

Retief dismissed the complaint, as the author had a right to his opinion (whether he was right or wrong was not the issue) – the same right the newspaper had to publish it. He added that, if the publication’s image had been lowered by the publication of that column, it was its own choice.

THE RULING ITSELF

Dear all

Mr Glenn Ashton’s complaint against the publication of an opinion piece by Keith Bryer in Business Report (4 May 2016, headlined BBC brought low by its prejudice against climate change sceptics) refers.

If this office rules that a newspaper may not publish the opinion that climate change is a myth, then we shall be opening a can of worms. What would be next? No space for those who still believe that the earth is flat, that man did not go to the moon, that Adolf Hitler is still alive, that evolution is a myth, etc?

The list would be endless, and impossible to regulate.

It is Bryer’s Constitutional right to be wrong. Likewise, if BR lowers its public image by publishing his views, as Ashton argues, it is the publication’s choice to do so. These are not matters for the Press Ombud to regulate.

The matter of a conflict of interest is impossible to prove.

I am therefore dismissing this complaint – Bryer has a right to his opinion, and BR (and the publications that make use of BR’s texts) has a right to publish it.

Our Complaints Procedures lay down that within seven working days of receipt of this decision, either party may apply for leave to appeal to the Chairperson of the SA Press Appeals Panel, Judge Bernard Ngoepe, fully setting out the grounds of appeal. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Regards

Johan