A Family and the News of the World

The Press Ombudsman has decided that there is insufficient evidence to enable him to make a decision about a number of complaints from a family member that an article published about a murder victim in the News of the World was in breach of Principles 1 (Truth and Accuracy), 3 (Fairness and Honesty) and 4 (Respect for Rights) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines.

The complaints made were about statements alleging that the deceased, who had no criminal convictions, was “known to the Gardaí” and had criminal associations. The newspaper responded that while they sympathized with the complainant’s family, what had been published had been as accurate as was possible in the immediate aftermath of the murder.

While the publication of the material in question was quite obviously very distressing for the family of the deceased, and although the complainant submitted ancillary evidence about the deceased person’s good character to support the complaint, there was insufficient independent or corroborative evidence about the truth or accuracy of the specific statements complained about in the article to allow the Press Ombudsman to make a decision on the complaints that this material amounted to a breach of Principles 1, 3 or 4 of the Code of Practice.

While the complainant submitted persuasive evidence that the photograph used to accompany the article had been distorted, the newspaper said that it had published the image without alteration in the form in which it had received it from a contact. They said they had no reason to believe that it had been tampered with in any way, and that they apologized if it had been, but had no knowledge about when, how, or if it was so altered. In these circumstances, there is insufficient evidence to enable the Press Ombudsman to make a decision as to whether or not the photograph was distorted and, if it was, by whom.

While the newspaper accounted for the origin and the handling of the photograph, and apologised for publishing it if indeed it had been altered, the issues that the complaint about the photograph raises under the Code of Practice are very significant ones, and worthy of serious consideration by editors generally.

9 December 2010

The Family appealed the decision of the Press Ombudsman to the Press Council of Ireland.