The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland has upheld a complaint against the Ireland on Sunday newspaper for a radio advertisement concerning a convicted rapist who later committed suicide.
The ASAI found the advertiser had breached the Code of Advertising Standards on a number of grounds relating to invasion of privacy, exploitation of the public reputation of a person in a humiliating way, and failure to protect the dignity of a vulnerable person.
Anthony Cawley killed himself in Wheatfield prison on April 14th. He was serving sentences for three rapes, including one in prison.
A week before Cawley's suicide, RTE ran advertisements for Ireland on Sunday, which was flagging an article on him, describing him as "the beast". He told the chief prison chaplain, Father Feargal MacDonagh, he was "tortured" by the advertisements, which he heard in his cell.
Father MacDonagh made the complaint to the ASAI, and yesterday told The Irish Times he was delighted it had been upheld.
According to the ASAI report, the advertisers responded to the complaint that, while it was "regrettable" that the advertisement "may have played any small part in the decision of one of the people mentioned in the advertisement to take his own life," this was "really a side show to the deeper issues involved."
Upholding the complaint, the authority said the Code of Advertising Standards "stipulates that advertisers should have written permission in advance from anyone portrayed or referred to in an advertisement . . . that advertisements should not exploit the public reputation of persons in a manner that is humiliating or offensive".
It also stipulates that, where referring to vulnerable persons, advertisements "should fully respect their dignity, should avoid stereotyping or other insensitive approaches which could promote negative images or prove hurtful, and should not subject such persons to ridicule or offensive humour." It found the advertisement breached the code on all these grounds.