Harney and the Irish Daily Mail

Decision of the Press Council

The Council decided to admit the appeal for its consideration on the grounds that the case involved issues of significant public interest. It considered the appeal at its meeting on October 9th 2009. The Council examined all the arguments made by the newspaper against the decision of the Press Ombudsman that the headline in the article concerned breached Principle 1(Truth and Accuracy).

The Council concluded that the dominant headline, in quotation marks, on the front page of the newspaper could convey only one impression, that is that it represented a direct quote from the article written by Professor Crown. . Professor Crown did not use those words. The headline was seriously misleading. The Council therefore did not allow the appeal.

The decision of the Press Ombudsman was affirmed.