Foley and the Evening Herald

Both the Evening Herald and MrFoley appealed the decision of the Press Ombudsman to the Press Council of Ireland.

Decision of the Press Council

At its meeting on 16th April 2010 the Press Council first gave careful consideration to the application to appeal the decision of the Ombudsman from the complainant. It decided that the application did not provide grounds either in relation to new evidence or any error in procedure or in the application of the principles of the code to warrant admitting the matter for consideration on appeal.

In relation to the application to appeal the decision of the Ombudsman received from the newspaper the Press Council decided to admit the appeal on the grounds that the issues raised in relation to the interpretation of Principle 2 (Distinguishing fact and comment) were of sufficient importance to merit discussion and consideration by the Council.

The Council decided that in reporting news stories only established fact may be reported without reference to sources and that other statements whether comment, conjecture, rumour or reports which have not been verified require references to their source at an early point to make it clear that they are not being presented as established fact.

The Council decided that this requirement was not met in this case.

The decision of the Ombudsman was upheld.