A bird carer complained to the press watchdog that a weekly newspaper did not give him sufficient chance to comment on a story because he was contacted on a bank holiday.

Michael Gaukroger went to the Independent Press Standards Organisation after the Isle of Wight County Press ran two stories about budgies that he was involved in caring for in a park aviary.

Mr Gaukroger claimed he had not been given a reasonable opportunity to respond to the newspaper’s request for comment before publication, due to being contacted on a bank holiday Monday and with a short deadline.

He added it had not been taken into account that he would need to consult with other members of the voluntary group he was a part of before providing a response and that this would take additional time.

Complaining under Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 2 (Privacy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, he also claimed there were a number of inaccuracies in the stories and said they had been biased against the voluntary group.

Denying any breaches of Code, the County Press did not accept that the coverage of the aviary was biased, saying it had approached Mr Gaukroger for comment and a chance to rebut the concerns raised by the members of the public named in the stories.

The paper stated it had contacted him on the bank holiday Monday but had not imposed a 2pm deadline until two days later.

It said if Mr Gaukroger had requested more time to respond, this would have been granted.

IPSO found no breaches of Code, noting it does not address issues of bias.

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