Press Council partially upholds complaint against 'Irish Times'

THE PRESS Council of Ireland has partially upheld a complaint about an article published in The Irish Timeslast year.

The complaint related to an article which was published in the newspaper on October 18th, 2008, under the headline “Press Council upholds complaint against Myers article”.

The complainant was the journalist Kevin Myers.

He complained to the Press Council that the article breached principle 1 of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Periodicals, which relates to truth and accuracy. Mr Myers said the manner in which a previous decision of the council was presented did not strive for truth and accuracy.

Mr Myers also complained that the article breached principle 3.1 of the code, which relates to fairness and honesty, in that it did not strive for fairness and honesty in the balance of its report.

He said principle 4 of the code, relating to respect for rights, had been breached in relation to the complainant’s right to a good name.

The Press Council said The Irish Timeshad responded that the article was carefully written and quite precise.

The newspaper stated the headline to the article was an accurate summary of the thrust of the article and of the decision of the Press Council.

The newspaper argued that because the article was correct in every respect an apology was not warranted.

It did, however, offer to frame a clarification to ensure that its readers were left in no doubt about the decision of the Press Council.

A draft clarification was submitted to the complainant but was not acceptable to him, the Press Council said.

The Press Council has announced its decision to partially uphold the complaint. It is the first time a complaint has been upheld or partially upheld against The Irish Times.

The Press Council said Mr Myers’s complaint centred on the opening paragraph of the article.

It had stated that: "The Press Council of Ireland has upheld a complaint against the Irish Independentthat an article by its columnist Kevin Myers breached its Code of Practice relating to incitement to hatred".

Mr Myers claimed that this summary of the Press Council’s decision not only failed to mention the several complaints that had not been upheld, but gave the impression that the one complaint which was upheld under principle 8 of the Code of Practice related to incitement to hatred, whereas in fact it related only to that part of the principle dealing with material “likely to cause grave offence”.

The council said it accepted that the summary of the council’s decision in the opening paragraph of the article was “inadequate and likely to create a seriously misleading impression”.

The clarification of the full scope of the Press Council’s decision at the end of the article did not compensate for the deficiency of the opening, the Press Council found.

The Press Council said it had therefore decided that the report was misleading under principle 1.2 and had in this respect breached principle 1 of the Code of Practice.

However, the council said it found no reason to believe that this was “other than inadvertent”.

It therefore decided that there were no adequate grounds for finding that there was any breach of the code’s principle 3, relating to fairness and honesty, or principle 4, relating to respect for rights.

The Press Ombudsman had referred the complaint to the Press Council for decision as both articles related to a decision of the council.