A Woman and the Irish Daily Star

The Press Ombudsman has decided that the Irish Daily Star took sufficient remedial action to resolve a complaint made under Principle 5 (Privacy) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Periodicals in an article that included a photograph of the complainant’s house and car, showing the car’s registration number. The article was reporting on a burglary at the complainant’s house.

Following her complaint, the newspaper wrote to the complainant to say that they appreciated her concerns arising from their coverage of the crime, that the photograph of her car (including the number plate) was unnecessary to the telling of the story, that including it was a mistake on their part, and that her complaint had been taken very seriously by all the newspaper’s staff. It added that it would strive to be much more careful in future with pictures of this kind.

In response to the complaint about the picture of the complainant’s house, it said that this came within the ‘scene of the crime’ images commonly used in such reports.

In the circumstances, no further action is required under the Code of Practice.

27 May 2010