Paula Murray vs the Press Complaints Commission
You might remember the horrible story that the Scottish Sunday Express ran back in March about the Dunblane survivors — basically that they were disgracing the memories of their dead classmates by acting like normal 18 year olds. You might also remember that after a lot of people got upset about this, the Scottish Sunday Express managed to issue a somewhat self-serving apology.
Paula Murray was the journalist behind this story; Derek Lambie the editor of the title. While I have no desire to see trial-by-blogger become a twenty-first century replacement for trial by ordeal, I do find it somewhat apt that the Scottish Sunday Express, which had attempted a trial by media (or possibly more of a ‘public crucifixion by media’) of the Dunblane survivors found themselves rather being hoist by a somewhat similar petard.
The ruling of the PCC has now been published:
They were not public figures in any meaningful sense, and the newsworthy event that they had been involved in as young children had happened 13 years previously.
[...] the images appeared to have been taken out of context and presented in a way that was designed to humiliate or embarrass them [...] the way they were used – when there was no particular reason for the boys to be in the news – represented a fundamental failure to respect their private lives. Publication represented a serious error of judgement on the part of the newspaper.
Although the editor had taken steps to resolve the complaint, and rightly published an apology, the breach of the Code was so serious that no apology could remedy it.
It really is somewhat scathing; critical of the way the images were taken out of context; critical of the decision to make the 18 year olds the focus of a story for no decent reason; critical of the lack of respect to privacy; critical of the newspaper’s judgement. And then to top it off by saying that “the breach of the Code was so serious that no apology could remedy it”.
Of course, the next question is, so what are the PCC doing to remedy it? Have they issued a massive fine? Have they called for a change in editorial policy? Well, so far as I can tell, the Scottish Sunday Express have been forced to publish the PCC’s ruling… and … er … well, then it’s business as usual. There’s certainly no mention made of a fine or anything else…
If the PCC won’t act with teeth when “the breach of the Code was so serious that no apology could remedy it” then maybe it’s time that the press complaints commission was actually made independent of the press…
(Other takes on this can also be found at Bloggerheads and Tory Troll)
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