Publication Guidelines

Principle 11 of the Code of Practice obliges member publications to publish upheld decisions with due prominence.  These are the guidelines as to how decisions must be published:

It is the responsibility of editors to ensure that all decisions are published in accordance with the requirements below.

General

Correspondence entered into as part of the complaints process, or any other matters that arose during the complaints process not contained in a decision, should not be published.  The publication of decisions should not be used to undermine a complainant or endorse a publication’s position.

Publication of decisions on upheld complaints (print)

Decisions on upheld complaints shall be published (a) in full; (b) promptly; (c) on the same page as the original article, or further forward (with the exception that if the article was published on the front page, the decision shall be published with due prominence on one of the first four editorial pages; (d) on the same day of the week as the original article; (e) with due prominence; (f) unedited and (g) without editorial commentary by way of a headline or otherwise.   The decision must be accompanied by the Press Council/Press Ombudsman logo.

If the article that gave rise to the complaint is available online it must be permanently annotated in a prominent manner at the top with a link to the decision.

Publication of decisions on upheld complaints (online)

Decisions on upheld complaints about online articles shall be published in full or by use of a headlined link to the decision    They shall be published on the homepage or as one of the first eight stories for a period of 24 hours, after which a link to the decision with the accompanying Press Council/Press Ombudsman logo and caption must be available on the website for a further week.  

If the article that gave rise to the complaint remains online it must be permanently annotated in a prominent manner with a link to the decision.

Publication of decisions on complaints not upheld.

There is no requirement to publish decisions on complaints that are not upheld: publication of such decisions is at the discretion of editors. Any article about any such decision shall, however, be published with fairness to all concerned and in the spirit of the Code of Practice.  

It is recommended that any coverage of decisions on complaints not upheld should include reference to the fact that the full decision can be accessed at www.pressombudsman.ie

(revised June 2018)