I’m all for the new wave of press regulation in Ireland, but this article in the Irish Times is a little worrying. Irish Independent journalist Kevin Myers lodged a complaint to the Press Council of Ireland after the Irish Times published a news report regarding Mr Myer’s own piece, titled “Africa is giving nothing to anyone apart from Aids”, being criticised by the Press Council.  Quoted for convenience:

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 Independent that 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”.

Now, I’m sorry, but to me this really seems like a case in which the Press Council is editing for style. A lack of specificity is only to be expected in the opening paragraph of a news report: it’s called the inverted pyramid, and is designed to give the most important and interesting information first. And since the Press Council is partly made up of representatives of the press industry, I’m quite surprised at the decision.

Unfortunately, the decision doesn’t seem to be available on the Press Council’s website yet. The decision against Kevin Myers, however, is.

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Posted by Dave Molloy in •Journalism

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