READERS REPORT: January was a relatively quiet month in terms of calls for corrections. Was it post-Christmas lethargy? Were there fewer errors in the newspaper? Or was it, as one reader said, that you don't like to bother us when we have enough of our own problems? If this is the case, we appreciate the sentiment but we'd rather hear about mistakes than imagine that because we're not hearing about them, there are none, writes Mary O'Brien.
One reader who did call was not happy with our coverage of the situation at Holy Cross school in north Belfast. An electronic search on January 22nd revealed that, in the previous six months, we had published a total of 168 items on the subject: 123 news reports and analysis articles, 11 editorials and opinion columns, and 24 letters. But no matter how many reports or what shade of opinion is published, I believe the reader is so outraged by the events that, no matter what I say, he will remain unhappy.
Another reader, in an email on the same subject, asked to be spared a "piffling leader" because it did not go into in sufficient detail the reasons for the situation at Holy Cross. It seems almost too obvious to say, but it is impossible to cover every aspect or all the background in every article on Northern Ireland. The best we can hope for is that all the important details are included in the overall coverage.
It is difficult to believe that in the many millions of words that must have been published since the early 1970s, emanating from staff in our offices in Northern Ireland, London, Washington and Dublin - and from most of the central figures in the conflict - that any aspect of the news or any shade of opinion on Northern Ireland has been left unsaid in these pages.
The photograph of youths overturning an army vehicle in north Belfast on the front page on January 10th was a source of annoyance to a few readers. As the caption explained, the photographer was told by the rioters that if any of those involved were recognisable in a newspaper photograph, there would be serious consequences for him.
One reader believed that in showing the picture with the faces of the rioters obscured, The Irish Times was bowing to "thuggery". For another reader, it "smacked of Nazi Germany in the 1930s".
I asked Peter Thursfield, our pictures editor, why we had published it, given that our policy is not to manipulate photographs, so that readers can have full confidence in the images they see.
There is always the danger that any alteration (other than technical adjustments) to the image recorded by the photographer may damage the integrity of a newspaper and hence its relationship with its readers. So why did The Irish Times choose to publish this one?
"Firstly, it was offered to us by Pacemaker (a news photo service in Belfast) which had received the picture already 'pixellated' (i.e., with the adjustments made) from the photographer," said Peter. "So it was not our decision to alter it."
But why did we publish it?
"We did have some difficulty coming to the decision - but it was simply the best picture available, even with the pixellation, that showed what was happening in Ardoyne. It was for that reason, and that reason alone, that we used it," he said.
While The Irish Times, on behalf of its readers, has been keeping a watchful eye on prices during the introductory period of the euro, two of those readers took us to task for not rounding down our cover price, which was £1 and is now €1.27.
Regrettably, while we fully realise how awkward it is, and however much we'd like to oblige, the unfortunate fact is that our financial situation precludes us from reducing our cover price, even by as little as two cents. Multiplied by the number of copies sold, even such a small reduction would add up to a tidy weekly sum, which we can ill-afford to lose at the moment.
The TV listings in the Saturday magazine on January 19th were, understandably, a source of some irritation.
Bloody Sunday was listed as starting at 10 p.m. on UTV on Sunday, January 20th, when in fact it started at 9.30 p.m. (it started at 10 p.m. on all other regional ITV stations).
Lorna Kernan, TV editor, assures me she is doing everything she can to ensure that the published programmes and times are correct. "The problems arise when radio and television stations make late changes to their programmes," she said. "Sometimes I'm not notified at all (which happened in the case of Bloody Sunday) but more often the notice arrives too late for inclusion in the magazine, which, for technical reasons at the moment, has to be printed well ahead of the publication date."
Thankfully, when our printing and distribution move to the new plant at Citywest, later changes to listings can be accommodated.
In the meantime, although it is far from satisfactory, the only option is to publish late notices in the main newspaper on Saturday on page two.
Mary O'Brien is assistant readers' representative of The Irish Times. Readers' Report appears on the first Monday of each month.
Readers may contact the office by email - readersrep@irish-times.ie - or by telephone, 01 6758000, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday.