The press watchdog has censured a regional daily after it failed to verify whether a man was a spokesperson for a group of people.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation has upheld a complaint against the North Wales Daily Post after it published as fact that John Morris was speaking on behalf of Supporters of Nightingale House Hospice in a story it ran.

The Daily Post had reported that Supporters of Nightingale House Hospice (Hospis Ty’r Eos), in Wrexham, said they were “banned from further interaction” with the hospice after expressing concerns about the charity’s “lack of respect” for the Welsh language.

The newspaper had quoted Mr Morris as saying the group received a letter from the hospice’s chief executive and board of trustees which thanked them for their 30-year contribution but said “this is the end of our communications”.

Nightingale House Hospice

The story prompted the hospice to complain to the Independent Press Standards Organisation on the grounds that Mr Morris was not a spokesperson for the group, nor indeed a member of the group.

Complaining under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice Nightingale House provided an email from the chairman of the group to support its position on this point, and noted that the chairman had spoken to a reporter at the Daily Post prior to the publication of the print version of the story to make it aware of this point.

Denying a breach of Code, the Daily Post said it had been contacted by an individual, Mr Morris, who purported to be the spokesperson for the fundraising group, and who had previously been considered a reliable contact of the publication.

It said that, where this was the case, there was no reason not to take his assertion that he was a spokesperson of the fundraising group at face value.

The Daily Post noted the fundraising group had no website, social media, or public presence and this was the first time – to its knowledge – it had been contacted by the group, and it therefore published the claims of the unverified spokesperson in good faith.

A copy of the statement by Mr Morris that the paper provided to IPSO did not state he was a spokesperson for the Supporters of Nightingale Hospice House, but rather that “[a] group of Welsh speaking supporters of the hospice for over 30 years have been shocked by being banned from ‘further interaction’ with the hospice by the chief executive and trustees.

Prior to IPSO becoming involved in the issue, references to a “spokesperson for the group” in the story had been changed to refer to Mr Morris by name, and to refer to him as “a supporter of Nightingale House Hospice”.

IPSO carefully reviewed the statement from Mr Morris and noted that it did not refer to the Supporters of Nightingale Hospice, but rather to an unspecified “group” of supporters.

The statement therefore did not provide a basis for linking the spokesperson with the group and, moreover, the Daily Post had not attempted to verify the man’s alleged links with the Supporters of Nightingale House Hospice.

This represented a failure to take care, in breach of Clause 1 (i).

The complaint was partially upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.