Pavee Point welcomes the acknowledgement by Press Ombudsman Peter Feeney that an article published by the Irish Daily Mail in 2014 contained generalisations about the Traveller community and was offensive .
In his judgement on the 23rd of June, Peter Feeney, Press Ombudsman said an article written by Brenda Power, in the Irish Daily Mail ‘certainly caused offence’ and ‘did contain some generalisations’.
Pavee Point and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties complained to the Press Ombudsman on the grounds the article entitled “If Travellers want ethnic status, they ought to get rid of those slash hooks and settle” was intended or likely to cause grave offence or stir up hatred against Travellers. They also complained that the article was factually incorrect.
The ICCL complained about six specific statements in the article and argued that some of these statements referred to the Traveller community as inherently violent and employed broad stereotypical characterisations of male members of the Traveller community.
The complainants also argued that that it was false to state that granting of ethnic status to Travellers would elevate their rights above other citizens.
In his judgement Mr. Feeney said he considered the Daily Mail’s offer of a right to reply to be sufficient to redress any breach of the Press Council Code of Practice. This offer was not acceptable to Pavee Point and the ICCL as it did not compensate for the hurt caused and we said a full apology and retraction of the material was required.
Daily Mail editor acknowledged to the Ombudsman that the publication of ‘any powerful opinion may cause offence somewhere’ and said the right of reply was the best method of dealing with such situations.
It is our opinion that it is the responsibility of the editors to ensure balance in their reporting. As the National Union of Journalists state in their Guidelines on Race Reporting: “Editors must ensure that coverage of stories relating to race are placed in a balanced social and ethical context.”