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Weekly cleared over agency inquest copy inaccuracy

IPSO_logo_newA weekly newspaper has been cleared of wrongdoing by the press watchdog after publishing agency copy from an inquest which contained an inaccuracy.

Mark Bristow complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that the Bucks Free Press breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 5 (Intrusion into grief or shock) of the Editors’ Code of Practice after it printed a report of an inquest into the death of his son.

Mr Bristow said the article, published in print and online, had given the inaccurate impression that his son had taken his own life because he had been responsible for the death of a woman in a road traffic accident in 2010, despite it being made clear at that woman’s inquest that he had not been responsible because the road had been flooded and the street lamps had been turned off.

The complainant also said that the article had inaccurately reported that he had found his son on 11 June and he had died the next day, when in fact he had been found on 12 June and died the same day.

Additionally, the flooded section of the road in which the complainant’s son’s car had lost control had been 70 metres long, not 70 feet, as reported, and the inquest had heard that both the complainant and his wife had found his son’s suicide note, not the complainant alone.

Mr Bristow also said that inaccurately reporting that his son had killed himself due to the guilt he felt over causing someone’s death intruded into his family’s grief and shock, in breach of Clause 5.

In response, the Free Press said that the article, the copy of which was provided by an agency, had made clear that the road conditions had been the cause of the fatal crash in 2010.

The newspaper accepted that the complainant had found his son on 12 June, and apologised for the error. It appeared that the agency reporter’s notes had been inaccurate on this point, and the newspaper regretted the confusion that had been caused.

It also accepted that the body of water had been 70 metres in length, but attributed this to another newspaper having described the water as being 70ft in length in a report of the 2010 inquest.

On the point about how Mr Bristow’s son was found, the Free Press said the inquest had heard how both parents were in their son’s room when the note was found, and that it was reasonable to conclude that the complainant had found the note because it was he who had given evidence.

The Free Press issued an apology on the inaccuracies it admitted, which also appeared as a footnote in an amended version of the article online.

IPSO found no significant inaccuracies had been made, and the newspaper was entitled to report on proceedings so did not engage Clause 5.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.