Dolan and the Irish Farmers Journal

Complaint

The Irish Farmers’ Journal published an article in its edition of 8 August 2009 entitled “Ciaran Dolan in the wars”, which quoted from a letter sent by Mr Dolan, General Secretary of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), replying to another member of the organization who had written to him to take issue with comments he had made on RTE. Mr. Dolan complained under Principle 5 (Privacy) that the newspaper had quoted extracts from his private correspondence.

The publication replied that insofar as the article had consisted of facts they were accurate, and insofar as it consisted of comment, the comment was fair comment. It offered first of all to publish a letter from the complainant, and, subsequently, to publish a clarification acknowledging the complainant’s major role in the development and running of his organisation, and stating that they had not intended to do him any damage. Both offers were refused by the complainant. The complainant submitted wording for an apology to be published by the newspaper but this was refused by the newspaper.

Decision

As copies of both letters, according to the evidence available to the Press Ombudsman, were circulated to various members of the organization, the newspaper’s action in publishing extracts from part of this correspondence does not, in the opinion of the Press Ombudsman, amount to a breach of privacy under Principle 5 of the Code of Practice.

18 November 2009