OFFICE OF THE PRESS OMBUDSMAN
You can complain about any article that personally affects you, if you think that it breaches the Code of Practice, provided that all information in relation to the complaint is submitted within three months of the date of publication of the article. You can ask someone to assist you to make a complaint or make a complaint on your behalf, and representative organisations can also make complaints.
You can also complain about the behaviour of a journalist if you feel that this behaviour involves a breach of the Code.
The Office of the Press Ombudsman will, in the first instance, attempt to resolve the matter by making direct contact with the editor of the publication concerned. It will outline the complaint to the publication and seek to resolve the matter by a process of conciliation. If conciliation is not possible, the Press Ombudsman will examine the case and make a decision.
It does not cost anything to complain to our office.
The complaints process is confidential until all aspects of the process are completed. All correspondence entered into between the parties during the process remains confidential to the parties to the complaint and the Office of the Press Ombudsman.
first woman to be appointed to the role, which is now referred to as the Press
Ombudsperson. From Derry, she is a writer and an award winning journalist. In 2023 she
was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Letters by Trinity College Dublin.
Her books include “Northern Protestants – On Shifting Ground” (Blackstaff, 2021), “Bear In Mind These Dead” (Faber, 2007) and “Sophia’s Story” (Blackstaff,1998). Her essays have appeared in many anthologies including “Show Your Work – Essays from the Dublin Review” (2022) and “Impermanence” (No Alibis Press, 2022), and “Great Irish Reportage” (Penguin, 2015). Her journalism has been published in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Field Day Review, the Irish Times and the Guardian, for which she was a regular columnist before her appointment as PO. She was Northern Editor of the Sunday Tribune until 2004. She is one of the judges for the Ewart Biggs Award.
She has been a senior figure in the NGO sector – from 2009 to 2012 she was CEO of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, and she was a founder of the Belfast Rape Crisis Centre in the 1980s. She was a member of the code committee for the British press regulator, Impress.
Complaints Procedure
Our complaints procedures have been devised in the interests of fairness and of achieving a speedy resolution to complaints.
Online Complaints Form
The Office of the Press Ombudsman considers complaints about articles published by member publications of the Press Council of Ireland within the last three months.
Outcome of Complaints
The Press Ombudsman’s Office will, in the first instance, attempt to resolve your complaint by contacting the editor of the publication.
OTHER OMBUDSMAN OFFICES
Ombudsman Offices in Ireland
