Mr Patrick Kelly and The Irish Times

The Press Ombudsman has decided The Irish Times took sufficient remedial action to resolve a complaint made by Mr Patrick Kelly that an article published on 10 May last breached Principles 1 (Truth and Accuracy) and 7 (Court Reporting) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines.

Mr Kelly complained  that he did not apply for the recusal of a named High Court Judge “because the judge had last March rejected Mr Kelly’s application to have some journalists jailed over reports of the ECJ judgment”, as reported in the article.

The Irish Times published a correction of the statement complained about in the printed newspaper and in its online edition.  It also amended the original article in the online edition, and offered to further edit the online article to include the reasons given by Mr Kelly for seeking the recusal of the High Court Judge.

While the newspaper’s actions were deemed unacceptable by Mr Kelly, in the opinion of the Press Ombudsman, they amounted to sufficient remedial action on its part to resolve the complaint under Principles 1 and 7 of the Code of Practice.

14 August 2012

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