Denise Glynn and The Sunday World

The Press Ombudsman has decided that the Sunday World made an offer of sufficient remedial action to resolve a complaint made by Ms Denise Glynn about a breach of Principle 9 (Children) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines.

The complainant maintained that two photographs of her child accompanying an article about a person who the newspaper described as “a crime figure” published in the newspaper on 10 June had been identifiable.

In one photograph of the child and the person concerned, the child’s face had been pixelated and in another, which featured both the complainant and her child in the company of the same individual, both the child’s face and the complainant’s face had been pixelated.

The newspaper responded that they had gone to great lengths to hide the identity of the complainant and her daughter, but guaranteed in writing, in response to the complaint, that they would not use the photographs again.

The Press Ombudsman’s view was that while the pixelation in the photographs under complaint was not enough, in itself, to prevent the complainant’s child from being identifiable to people other than close family members, the newspaper’s subsequent guarantee to the complainant not to use the photographs again was, in the circumstances, sufficient remedial action to resolve the complaint.

25 October 2012