A solicitor’s complaint over a story which reported he had harassed a daily newspaper journalist has been rejected by the press watchdog.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation has turned down a complaint by Neil McPherson against Glasgow-based daily The Herald.

The Herald had reported in a story, published in March this year, that Mr McPherson was “said to have harassed a fellow lawyer and a journalist” a story which also detailed other claims about him and his son.

Mr McPherson denied he was under criminal investigation for threatening the journalist, who had written the story in question, but IPSO found it was not inaccurate for The Herald to report the allegation in the way it did.

Complaining under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice on this point, and a number of others regarding the story, Mr McPherson said the journalist had made the complaint in September 2016 and it was self-evident that the matter was no longer under investigation.

He claimed it was misleading for the article not to have made it clear that the complaint had been made some two-and-a-half years before publication, adding there was no active investigation against him.

Mr McPherson also denied that he threatened and harassed an unnamed solicitor as reported in The Herald’s story.

The Herald provided IPSO with an email chain between the journalist and the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service with a reference number, which confirmed the case involving the allegation was still under consideration as of May 2019.

It also produced another email sent by the solicitor referenced in the article, which featured the same reference number, asking if the case was still under consideration, to which he received a response on 13 May confirming that it was.

IPSO found it was not in dispute that the alleged harassment had occurred in 2016, and where an official source had confirmed that an investigation into the complaint was ongoing, it was not inaccurate to report that Mr McPherson was said to have threatened and harassed a journalist.

It also did not consider that it was significantly misleading to report that he was said to have threatened and harassed a solicitor in the circumstances.

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