Decided by the Press Ombudsman

On 14 September 2014 the Sunday World published a report under the headline “Smokey and the bandit”.  Mr Sean Fitzgerald complained that the article breached Principle 1 (Truth and Accuracy), Principle 2 (Distinguishing Fact and Comment), Principle 3 (Fairness and Honesty) and Principle 4 (Respect for Rights)   of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines. Mr Fitzgerald based his complaint on a reference to him in the report that he had called a person named in the article asking for cash. Mr Fitzgerald stated in his complaint that this was completely untrue. He claimed that the reference to him was from a third party and that it was not accurate, and this was therefore a breach of Principle 1.  Mr Fitzgerald further claimed that Principle 2 had been breached because the reporter had been “inappropriately influenced by someone who is making false claims”.  He went on to claim that Principle 3 had been breached because the reporter “did not confirm with the person making the false claim” whether it was his voice or not on the call that made the request for money.  He claimed that Principle 4 had been breached as the article was “based on malicious and unfounded accusations by a third party” and the facts had not been checked before publication.

The Irish Times published in its Arts and Books section on Saturday 13 September an article which reviewed a number of books on the topic of the Middle East and in particular Israeli and Palestinian relations.  The heading on the review was “Fear and Loathing: Palestinians pay the price of history”.  This was followed by a sub-heading “Israel still claims it has no choice but to continue the policies of ethnic cleansing, dispossession and extermination that started with its foundation”.

A letter was published in the Irish Examiner on 27 November 2014 under the heading “Solicitors’ tribunal only censured solicitor for failing to write a letter”.  The letter was signed by Senator Colm Burke of Colm Burke and Company Solicitors and referred to a report published in the previous day’s Irish Examiner on the findings of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal which had found the firm “guilty of misconduct in his practice”. 

The Clare Champion published an article giving a short account of a burglary that had taken place in a village in Co. Clare.  The article did not give the identity of those robbed or an address, but reported on the sum of money that had been stolen.  

On 28 November thejournal.ie published a report under the heading “Thousands of animals slaughtered in honour of Hindu Goddess”.  The report described the ritual slaughter of thousands of animals which had taken place in Nepal.  The report was accompanied by four photographs, three of which depicted the carcasses of slaughtered animals. The account was prefaced by a warning “Graphic Content”.  The source of the report, which was credited, was a highly reputable international news agency.

On 19 October the Sunday Independent published a decision of the Press Ombudsman, affirmed by the Press Council on appeal, upholding a complaint by Mr Gerry Adams TD that statements in an article published on 18 May under the headline “Adams tries to gag Independent” were in breach of Principles 1 (Truth and Accuracy) and 4 (Respect for Rights) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines. The Press Ombudsman upheld the complaint because he said that a letter sent by Mr Adams’ solicitors to the newspaper could not reasonably be interpreted as trying to “gag” the newspaper or silence its reporting. 

The Galway City Tribune on 12 September 2014 published an article under the headline “Who deleted the President’s emails?” with a sub-heading “Explosive findings as new GMIT probe urged into how evidence was destroyed”.  The report concerned an investigation into how Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) had dealt with accusations of plagiarism by a student.  The Galway City Tribune had received extracts from the report of the investigation and its article was based on these extracts.  The opening paragraph stated “Evidence that was relevant to the external investigation into cheating at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) – and a possible cover up of the incident – has been destroyed”.  The article claimed that emails of the President of the Institute at the time of the alleged cheating, Ms Marion Coy, “had been deleted from the college’s IT system” and that the investigators had made it clear that the deleted emails “might be relevant” to their inquiries.  The article claimed this was just one of a “series of explosive revelations” in the investigators’ report.  Further on in the article it was stated that Ms Marion Coy had “retired suddenly” from her position as President of GMIT.

The Irish Mail on Sunday on 13 July 2014 published an article under the headline “Priest wants ‘fat mile’ for overweight joggers”.  The article referred to a ‘no doubt tongue-in-cheek missive’ in a parish newsletter that urged councils “to introduce a fat mile to allow overweight people to jog out of public view”.  The views which were described as “humorous musings” were attributed to the parish priest of Castlegregory in Co Kerry, Fr Michael Hussey, though it was acknowledged that the newsletter article had no by-line or name attached.  The Irish Mail on Sunday article quoted extensively the newsletter‘s comments about middle-aged men and women joggers wearing ill-fitting sportswear.  Reference was then made by the Irish Mail on Sunday to another newsletter from the same parish which had described President Michael D Higgins as “king of the Irish fairies” and Queen Elizabeth as “Lizzie”.  The article claimed that Fr Hussey had got into “hot water” over these remarks.  The article was accompanied by a small close-up photograph of Fr Hussey’s face.

The Irish Sunday Mirror published an article on four unresolved murders that had taken place in the 1990s.  No one was convicted of any of the murders.  One person was charged with the murder of one of the victims.  The trial collapsed and the accused man was released from custody.  The person accused of murder in that trial died a decade later.  The article was based on an interview with a brother-in-law of the now deceased accused person.  In the article the interviewee claimed that his brother-in-law had killed the four people and that there had been other people involved in the killings. The article reported the name of the woman who was married at the time of the killings to the interviewee and who was a sister of the person accused of the murders.