Decision of the Press Ombudsman and the Press Council of Ireland regarding court coverage complaint

“A MAN complained that articles published in the Irish Examiner about a court case in which his brother was on trial for assault, and which were illustrated with photographs of his brother and himself, were in breach of Principles 1 (Truth and Accuracy), 2 (Distinguishing Fact and Comment), 4 (Respect for Rights), 5 (Privacy), 7 (Court Reporting) and 9 (Children) of the Code of Practice.

He further complained that the newspaper's coverage of the case was influenced by an undeclared potential conflict of interest on its part arising from an unrelated matter, which he set out in his complaint.

The complainant’s basic contention was that the court report, by virtue of what he claimed was a biased selection of some evidence (including the publication of evidence he believed was extraneous matter), the omission of other evidence he considered to be significant, and the presentation of the articles, including photographs and the Page 1 headline, were cumulatively so unfair as to present an inaccurate version of events to the reader.