IPSO Rules Against Irish News Over BBC Audience Plant Claims
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the UK's independent regulator for newspapers and magazines, has ruled that a claim made by The Irish News regarding BBC staff being placed in the audience on the Nolan Live TV show was inaccurate.
The BBC had lodged a complaint with IPSO, contesting reports published by The Irish News which alleged that members of BBC staff had been "planted" or "placed" in the audience and had "posed" as audience members during the show.
IPSO upheld the BBC's complaint, determining that the assertions made by The Irish News were not accurate. As part of the ruling, IPSO required The Irish News to publish the decision, which appeared in the newspaper on Wednesday.
The Irish News had issued several allegations concerning the BBC presenter Stephen Nolan in August 2023. The IPSO judgement specifically references an article published by The Irish News on 19 August 2023, which stated that staff had been "placed" in the audience. This included a statement from the editor of The Irish News, who said:
"The Irish News has firm evidence setting out the circumstances in which junior members of staff were placed in the audience of Nolan Live."
IPSO noted that, in its view, this statement "reiterated the inaccuracies" contained in the article.
