McGrane and the Evening Herald
The Press Ombudsman has decided to uphold a complaint under Principles 1 (Truth and Accuracy) and 2 (Distinguishing Fact and Comment) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines about an article in the Evening Herald of 5 January 2012, because the headline was misleading and reported a conjecture as fact.
Dr Conor McGrane complained that the headline to the article - “GPs raking in €500 an hour” - was misleading because the maximum hourly rate for GP consultations, even if calculated on the basis of the maximum fees reported in the article, could not have reached the figure of €500 an hour, and also because the article omitted the important information that all fee income was gross practice turnover.
The newspaper said that its article was fair and accurate, and that it was “hardly necessary” to point out to readers that doctors had to pay for premises, insurance, support staff and other expenses out of their fees.
In the view of the Press Ombudsman the headline was significantly misleading, and was also a conjecture reported as fact. For these reasons the complaint under both Principles is upheld.
A complaint under Principle 3 (Fairness and Honesty) was not upheld as there was no evidence that the information published was obtained by subterfuge, misrepresentation or harassment, as would be required to support a complaint under this Principle.
Dr McGrane also complained about a second article published on 5 January which stated that doctors were banned from advertising. The newspaper accepted that this was inaccurate and published an article on l7 January stating that GPs could advertise their prices for consultation. Dr McGrane complained that this was an inadequate response to his complaint as the clarification fell short of apologizing for printing inaccurate information about advertising. While this article was not identified as a correction or clarification of the original article, its publication was, on balance, sufficient to resolve this part of the complaint.
29 February 2012
The Newspaper appealed the Decision of the Press Ombudsman to the Press Council of Ireland.