A Woman and the Irish Daily Star

The Press Ombudsman has decided to uphold a complaint by a woman on behalf of herself and other members of her family that two articles in the Irish Daily Star about her father’s death on the day after he was buried were in breach of Principle 5.3 (Privacy) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Periodicals because they did not take the feelings of the grieving family into account in publishing the information. A number of other complaints about the articles were not upheld.

The complainant’s father had previously come to public attention after a high-profile incident involving a public figure. He had been hospitalized with a mental illness, and had subsequently taken his own life. The complainant maintained that the articles had not taken the feelings of the grieving family into account, more particularly as the newspaper had not made any attempt to contact her in relation to the matter.

The newspaper accepted that its articles had contained a number of factual errors, and offered to correct these. It also expressed its sympathy with the complainant, but maintained that the articles were simply an exercise of its responsibility to present the world as it is, and that this was an example of an extremely difficult story of human loss and suffering from which nobody was immune. Although contacting the complainant prior to publication might have averted the publication of errors, and might have been conducive to the publication of a less distressing version of the events involved, the newspaper explained its decision not to do so on the grounds that the complainant had not returned calls from them some years previously in connection with earlier publicity about her father.

While newspapers are entitled to inform the public of newsworthy but tragic events, including this one, Principle 5.3 of the Code of Practice provides that the feelings of grieving families should be taken into account when publishing information in situations of personal grief or shock. This Principle is especially relevant in circumstances involving the extremely sensitive issues of mental health and suicide. In these circumstances, the publication of these articles did not take the feelings of the grieving family into account, as is required under Principle 5.3 of the Code, and this part of the complaint is therefore upheld.

A number of other complaints were not upheld.

The woman also complained under Principle 5.4 (Privacy) about the publication of her name and place of work. As this information was obtained by the newspaper from the complainant’s employer’s website, it was in the public domain and therefore its publication did not breach the Code.

The newspaper’s offer to publish a clarification or correction in respect of the inaccuracies complained about in the reports was an offer of sufficient remedial action on its part to resolve this part of the complaint.

30 June 2010

The Irish Daily Star appealed the decision of the Press Ombudsman to the Press Council of Ireland.