IPSO, the independent press regulator, has dismissed a complaint against the Editor of the Cambrian News by the landlady of a west Wales pub who claimed that a non-specific reference to “Moody Cow” in a column referred to her.

Natalie Richards, the landlady of the Welsh Black pub in Bow Street, complained about a sentence in a column by Mick O’Reilly published in the Cambrian News on 2 September that read: “I must check out the claim that the Moody Cow has moved to Bow Street”.

In her complaint to IPSO, Mrs Richards said: “This end paragraph was aimed at me.”

In her online complaint naming Mr O’Reilly, Mrs Richard wrote: “He has now taken to harassing me through this article.”

Dismissing the complaint, IPSO said the clause in the Editor’s Code relating to harassment “generally relates to the way journalists behave when gathering news, including the nature and extent of their contacts with the subject of the story. Your concern did not relate to this.”

The regulator said that although Mrs Richards believed that the final paragraph containing the reference to the “Moody Cow” was aimed at her, there was no evidence to suggest that was the case.

“We noted you were not named directly in the article,” the regulator adjudicated. “We therefore did not identify grounds to investigate a possible breach” of the Editor’s Code.”

IPSO also advised the Welsh Black landlady that if she or her children felt harassed, she should contact the relevant authorities.

Commenting on the dismissal Mr O’Reilly said: “Any reader can avail of offices of the independent press regulator. That is their right. I was surprised that the landlady thought that the reference to the Moody Cow might somehow apply to herself. That’s a bit of a stretch, and IPSO thought so too.”