ODonoghue and the Sunday Independent

Complaint

The complainant said that an article and photograph published by the Sunday Independent on 13 July 2008 was misleading and therefore in breach of Principle 1 of the Code of Practice. The article was headlined “Time to shout stop to the rife clientilism in politics” and “Politicians should be wary of lobbying on behalf of convicted prisoners, writes Eilis O’Hanlon”. It was illustrated by a photograph of the complainant’s son Wayne, chained and in handcuffs, taken during his trial in November 2005. The complainant stated that no political representations had been made on behalf of his son.

The newspaper offered to publish a letter of complaint which had earlier been sent to the editor by the complainant, but of which it had no record until a copy was forwarded by the Office of the Press Ombudsman. This offer was rejected as inadequate by the complainant. Despite this rejection, the newspaper subsequently published the letter.

Decision

Principle 1.2 of the Code of Practice states that “When a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distorted report or picture has been published, it shall be corrected promptly and with due prominence.”

A reference to Wayne O’Donoghue in the text of the article was relevant in its immediate context, but the combination of the photograph, the headlines, and the article’s failure to make it clear that Mr O’Donoghue was not a convicted person on whose behalf political representations had been made, were significantly misleading, and therefore represented a breach of Principle 1.

The clear implication of the Code is that any agreed clarification or correction should be published by, and with the authority of, the publication in which the misleading information originally appeared, and is not the responsibility of the complainant. In the circumstances, the newspaper’s decision to publish the complainant’s original letter, which was written as a letter of complaint rather than as a letter to the editor for publication, without further reference to the complainant or to the Ombudsman, did not resolve the complaint.

20 August 2008

The Sunday Independent appealed the Decision of the Press Ombudsman to the Press Council of Ireland.