We submit that the front page article in the Daily Telegraph on Monday 2/12/24 named “Dark Ages” violates Press Council Guidelines regarding advertorials.
The Guidelines for Advertorials state, ‘Advertorials’ should be identified by such terms as “advertisement”, “advertising feature”, “special feature”, “sponsored feature” and the like so that readers are not led to believe that their content is based on editorial news values, free of commercial influences.”
The article says, ‘ Dark Ages. Australia told to step on the gas or lights will go out. Households face being plunged into darkness — while paying even more for power — without action on Australia’s gas shortage. Gas industry leaders are pleading for governments to get out of the way so new projects can start pumping, while businesses producing everyday grocery items say their soaring energy bills are being passed on at the checkout. Coverage pages 6-7’
The front page article is based on content that is sponsored by the gas industry (p6-7) with the aim of promoting an increased use of gas. However, this is not made clear on the front page article, and anyone who sees the newspaper, without looking further is likely to be misled that it is unbiased journalism, free from commercial influence.
This is underlined by the use of the term “coverage” – which falsely infers that this is a story that is being ‘covered’ by journalists, not an advertising feature.
The front page advertorial makes biased and incorrect claims including;
- Australians will face blackouts without more gas extraction projects
- Grocery items will be more expensive without more gas.
The front page article does not show a balanced view of the energy or grocery markets, reflecting the one-sided slant of the advertorial inside which widely quotes gas industry voices, but no independent energy market experts or economists or government spokespeople.
