The Australian Press Council: making newspapers accountable?

In 1979, during the run-up to the South Australian State Election the Murdoch-owned Adelaide paper "The News" campaigned against the ALP and there was a successful complaint heard by the Council. News Limited, which claimed irregular procedures, withdrew from the Council in 1980 and didn't rejoin until 1987. The journalists' union withdrew in 1986 and didn't rejoin until 2015. In 2012, The West Australian newspaper withdrew from the Council and set up its own complaints body.

In 2015/16 financial year, the Council's total income was $2.08 million with News Limited by far the highest contributor with their "contribution band" anywhere between 31% to 60%.

Clearly, if News Limited got really upset with the Council and withdrew again, the Council's fragile finances would simply collapse. The organisation would very largely cease to exist in its current form. And News Limited is already upset over the McGrath appointment. In 2015, then Editor-in-Chief of The Australian – News Limited's flagship newspaper – Chris Mitchell vowed to remove the paper from what he described as the "activism" of the Council.

Over the years there have been attempts to change the Press Council be either expanding or restricting its Council membership or by fiddling about with the complaints handling and adjudication processes.

The most recent was the inquiry set up by then Labor Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. Roy Finkelstein QC led the Independent Inquiry into Media and Media Regulation which reported in February, 2012. Before the then government actually got around to doing anything with the highly controversial recommendations it was defeated the following year.

With regard to the APC, Mr Finkelstein wrote in his report, "...the APC suffers from serious structural complaints...it does not have the necessary powers or the required funds to carry out its designated functions. Publishers can withdraw when they wish and alter their funding as they see fit."

No doubt about it, he was spot-on with those observations.

He proposed that a new body, the News Media Council, be established which would police all news and current affairs coverage in print, online, radio and television and that this new body "should have secure funding from the government and its decisions made binding."

That harked back to the failed 1975 attempt by the Whitlam Government to establish a similar body. Predictably, this caused great consternation among media outlets so it died a lonely death.

As Mr Stevens takes over his chairmanship duties with the APC he will be very conscious that he will be walking across eggshells trying to negotiate a path through the controversy caused by Ms McGrath's appointment.

Of course, he could always apply for the job in Nigeria if things don't work out well.