Ms Sharon Ní Bheoláin and the Irish Farmers Journal

The Press Ombudsman has decided to uphold a complaint by Ms Sharon Ní Bheoláin that an article published in the Irish Farmers Journal on 24 May 2014 about an animal welfare conference she chaired was in breach of Principle 1 (Truth and Accuracy) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines.

Ms Ní Bheoláin complained that the article attributed statements to her that she had not made at the meeting, that it included other significant factual errors, and that it misrepresented her contribution as chair of the meeting by omitting significant contextual information. 

The newspaper initially resisted the complainant’s contention that its report of the meeting was inaccurate, and altered its position only after the complainant had sourced a transcript of the meeting to support her complaint. It then offered to publish a correction which Ms Ní Bheoláin rejected as inadequate.

Although a number of factors contributed to the fact that the investigation of this complaint was protracted, it is clear that a substantial portion of the delay was due to the editor’s initial unwillingness to accept that the complaint had any merit whatsoever, and to reject it without providing any evidence of this other than the unsupported assertion that he had consulted other, unnamed individuals, who he said agreed with him about the report of the meeting.  The proffered correction, when the offer was made, was ungenerous, belated, incomplete, and included a limited apology.   In detail and overall, it is clear from the contrast between what the transcript contained and what was published, that the article was significantly misleading about what transpired at the meeting, and, in particular, about  Ms Ní Bheoláin’s role as its chairperson.

The complaint is therefore upheld.

20 August 2014

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