A Man and The Kerryman

The Press Ombudsman has decided to uphold a complaint that an article in The Kerryman about a court hearing was in breach of Principle 5 (Privacy) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines. A complaint that the article had breached Principle 7 (Court Reporting) was not upheld.

A man complained on behalf of a close relative that the combination, in the article, of a statement made in court about a place where his relative had been, together with an editorial reference to material from an earlier court report, had effectively breached his relative’s privacy.

The newspaper explained that the editorial reference to the earlier report had been added after careful consideration to avoid the possibility that the statement about the place where the complainant’s relative had been could have been open to misinterpretation, and with the intention of reducing, rather than increasing, the impact of the report.  It said there had been no intention to cause distress or to impact on the relative’s privacy. The editor offered to discuss the matter further with the complainant on the telephone – an offer which was not accepted.  

The Press Ombudsman completely accepts the bona fides of the newspaper in this matter. It is also clear that any court report has the capacity to cause unavoidable and unintended distress to those directly involved and, in this case, that the newspaper would have had no way of knowing that its well-meant editorial interpolation would have an opposite effect to that intended.

However, where a breach of privacy has been caused - however inadvertently - by an editorial addition to a court report, the newspaper, without diminishing its bona fides in the matter, should accept responsibility for such a breach.  In these circumstances, its offer to discuss the matter with the complainant over the telephone was insufficient to remedy the breach, and the complaint is therefore upheld.

As the report and the editorial reference complained of effectively consisted of the combination of reports of two court hearings, both of which were essentially accurate, the complaint under Principle 7 is not upheld.

19 November 2013

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