Mrs Deborah Rundle had first complained that the Sunday Times' coverage of her son's death was inaccurate and insensitive.
But while the PCC investigation was ongoing, a freelance reporter from the Sunday Times contacted the complainant's daughter through Facebook.
"She informed the reporter that the family did not wish to speak in view of the ongoing complaint. The reporter then asked about the details of the complaint, sending a copy of the article to the complainant's daughter so she could highlight what was wrong with it," the PCC reported.
Subsequently, Deborah Rundle complained that the second approach by a reporter to her daughter after the death of her son raised a breach of Clause 5 - intrusion into grief or shock.
"It was regrettable that a communication failure at the newspaper resulted in a further approach being made to the family despite the fact that there was an outstanding complaint about the previous coverage," the PCC ruled today.
"It would also have been sensible for the reporter not to have pursued the matter directly with Mrs Rundle's daughter once the complaint was brought to her attention. The combination of these two factors led the Commission to conclude that the handling of this approach was intrusive in breach of Clause 5, and the complaint was upheld on this point."
The first complaint, over Clause 1 (Accuracy) about an article published in the Sunday Times on 11 October 2009, was not upheld.
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