Last Saturday Mark Hennessy reported in the Irish Times about Irish Press Ombudsman, Professor John Horgan’s appearance at the Leveson Inquiry in London.
Prof Horgan was there as part of module 4 of the inquiry looking at the future of press regulation in Britain.
At one point Lord Justice Leveson and Robert Jay QC talked to Prof Horgan about the Press Council’s code and the matter of privacy, which is principle 5 of the Press Ombudsman’s Code of Practice.
The Irish Times article quoted Prof Horgan as saying: ““We haven’t had any complaint about the private lives of individuals by newspapers. It simply hasn’t risen.”
But this quote was incorrect.
Today the Irish Times ran a clarification, stating:
“An article in last Saturday’s edition, concerning evidence given to the Leveson Inquiry in London by the Press Ombudsman, Prof John Horgan, stated in error that the office of the Press Ombudsman had not received any complaint about the private lives of individuals over newspaper coverage. In fact, Prof Horgan said there had been no complaints about the private lives of individuals being misrepresented by a newspaper or other publication under Principle 1 – Truth and Accuracy of the Code of Practice. This exchange arose in the context of a query from Lord Justice Leveson about problems arising from possible misrepresentation which is dealt with under principle 1. There have been complaints from individuals alleging invasions of their privacy under Principle 5 of the Code, which deals specifically with privacy.”
It is surprising the IT didn’t catch this earlier given a complaint made under Principle 5 (privacy) was made against the Irish Times by the parents of Kate Fitzgerald and upheld by Prof Horgan just last month.
But the weirdness doesn’t stop there.
Prof Horgan told Lord Leveson: “In relation to misrepresentation, that’s basically principle 1, where it is a breach of the code, not only to publish something that’s inaccurate, but something that is a distorted report or misrepresents a situation. We haven’t had any complaint about the private lives of individuals being misrepresented by a newspaper or by another publication under Principle 1. It simply hasn’t arisen.”
But Prof Horgan did receive complaints under Principle 1 (Truth and Accuracy) from Kate’s parents Tom and Sally Fitzgerald. He refused to investigate seven matters – including three matters under Principle 1 – 1.1 False allegation; 1.2 Failure to retract and 1.3. Failure to apologise or clarify – because he ruled the complaint was out of time.
Baffling, right?