Mongey and the Irish Examiner

The Press Ombudsman has decided not to uphold a complaint by Mr William Mongey that an article published in the Irish Examiner on 1 February last breached Principles 1 (Truth and Accuracy), 2 (Distinguishing Fact and Comment), 3 Fairness and Honesty and 8 (Prejudice) of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines.

Mr Mongey complained that the article breached the Code of Practice because it presented the statistical information from a CSO Report in a gender-biased manner. He complained that the headline to the article - “Women are the better educated but only earn 73% of men’s incomes” - was not supported by the information in the Report and was therefore misleading and inaccurate. He also complained about a “pro-female anti-male bias” in the Report because of the use of certain phrases.

The editor’s response to the complaint was that it was a fair and accurate representation of the CSO Report.

The CSO Report said that women were more highly qualified than men. The difference between the phrases “more highly qualified”, as contained in the Report, and “better educated”, as contained in the headline, was not an error of a significance that would amount to a breach of Principle 1 of the Code of Practice.

The CSO Report said that women’s income in 2009 was around 73% of men’s income, but that, after adjusting for the longer hours worked by men, women’s hourly earnings were around 94% of men’s. The reference to 73% in the headline was therefore correct and the clarification contained in the body of the article in relation to longer hours worked by men was sufficient to avoid any doubt about the figure. This part of the complaint is therefore not upheld.

The Press Ombudsman could find no evidence that any phrase in the article breached Principles 2, 4 or 8 of the Code of Practice. While the complainant obviously felt that the article presented a pro-female anti-male bias because of the use of certain phrases, this is essentially a matter of opinion and, in the circumstances, did no present sufficient evidence of a breach of the Principles cited.

10 May 2012

The Complainant appealed the Decision of the Press Ombudsman to the Press Council of Ireland.
 

Click here to read the Decision of the Press Council of Ireland.