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AROUND A THIRD of all complaints received by the Press Ombudsman last year were based on the perception that something had been reported inaccurately.
That’s according to the 2014 Report of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman.
It received 350 complaints about articles published across newspapers, magazines and on-line news platforms. The Press Ombudsman Peter Feeney said:
These days the reader of a newspaper, magazine or online publication has far greater opportunities to access information directly and, as a result, are better informed.
“Journalists should not see this as a threat, but as an incentive to “up their game”. They should strive to get it right, to present their readers with all the relevant information and to do so in a fair and clear manner. They should not rush to judgment before assessing all the relevant information and viewpoints.”
The other big areas for complaints were privacy (Principle 5) with one in ten complaints and children (Principle 9) with one in eight complaints.
Feeney said, “The right to privacy is tempered by the principle of ‘public interest’. There is a difficult call to be made between the public’s right to know and the individual’s right to privacy.
It is impossible to lay down exactly when the public interest justifies what would otherwise be an intrusion into a person’s privacy.
“Participating in public life does not mean the abandoning of all rights to privacy…but clearly there may be aspects of a public person’s life that are more open to scrutiny than a person’s who does not seek any involvement in public life.”
One in eight complaints referred to children. Feeney said, “All of the considerations about privacy apply with additional vigour when reporting involves children.
With the growth in usage of digital media such as Facebook and twitter more and more personal information and comment on and by children is easily accessible.
New requirement in the Code of Practice relating to the reporting of suicide were also announced today. It reads, “In the reporting of suicide, excessive detail of the means of suicide should be avoided”.
The chairman of the Press Council Daithi O’Ceallaigh advised that the council had “sought the assistance of the Samaritans” on this new element in the Code of Practice.
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If a driver hits a bridge they should have their licence revoked for a minimum of 6 months, and the cost of the repair should be billed to the driver’s employer. Any recurring incidents should be met with a more lengthy licence suspension.
@Alberto Balsam: some chance of that. A HGV driver crushed a cyclist causing them life changing injuries because he didn’t check his mirror before moving h off. Last week Judge Martin Nolan didn’t see cause to even disqualify him from driving.
All bridges have clearance height signs on them,and as a professional truck driver they are required to know the height of their vehicle. This is careless driving and should be punishable offence paid for by the driver and company responsible.
How about this for a radical idea, erect heavy duty steel goal posts braced with a cross bar and 45° angle bracing against the direction of travel, positioned at 50 metres from, or just after the last possible alternative route from each side of low bridges, set at the exact bridge height, so drivers that don’t know their trailer height hit those first.
@Dvsespaña: it has been recommended to DCC and Fingal Country Council and they both chose to ignore the advice.
@Dvsespaña: ah stop now, using a simple easy solution is not the way of any government or council in this country. Where are the years of consulting fees and committee payments going to materialize from then???
Why not have a system I have seen in France. Before the bridge have a heavy plastic/ rubber curtain across the road the same height as the upcoming bridge and if your vehicle hits that you know you won’t get under the bridge.This allows you time to stop.
Solution: stop vehicles hitting bridge.
@Sherry Adams – Norn Iron Drag Artiste: burn those bridges.
@Sherry Adams – Norn Iron Drag Artiste: Close the pubs
Engineers will still have to inspect the bridge so the delay won’t be much shorter.
We all get distracted while out and about it human nature, really 100 meters away from a bridge should be an automatic boom gate that will only open if you below the hight restriction.
Build better infrastructure.
@Foscam Dl: do you mean higher bridges.
@paulie: No. Lower roads.!
Most hit bridge in the country is in Portlaoise, but no let’s start with Dublin. Ya couldn’t even make this up
@DvdF: not to minimise your local
Issue, but impact is greater in Dublin
@DvdF: actually the most hit bridge is in Mulhuddart in Fingal.
Groundbreaking
Cameras are no substitute for proper safety inspection after a bridge has been hit.
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