Read Press Gazette’s digest of the latest newspaper and media legal settlements, regulatory breaches, corrections and mistakes.
Included are the most noteworthy rulings from regulators including IPSO, Impress, ASA and Ofcom and any privacy, libel, contempt and other legal cases involving the media.
If you spot a media mistake we have missed, and which others can learn from, please email: [email protected]tte.co.uk.
Defamation | Rebel News Network vs Al Jazeera
8/2/22: The Court of Appeal for Ontario has dismissed an appeal brought by the Rebel News Network against a decision to dismiss its defamation claim against Al Jazeera for $600,000. The right-wing news provider sued over an episode of the Listening Post in which Al Jazeera connected Rebel News Network coverage with violent acts against Muslims (full ruling).
IPSO | Soulsby and Sommerland vs Mail Online
4/2/22: IPSO has rejected a complaint brought by Sir Peter Soulsby and Lesley Summerland claiming that Mail Online breached Clause 1 (Accuracy), Clause 2 (Privacy), Clause 10 (Clandestine devices and subterfuge) and Clause 12 (Discrimination) in an article headlined “Leicester’s Labour mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, 71, who has criticised ministers over city’s new lockdown broke Covid rules himself to visit his girlfriend”, published on 30 June 2020. IPSO found the article did not claim Sir Peter had broken the law (full ruling).
BBC | Today transphobia complaint upheld
4/2/22: BBC’s executive complaints unit held that an edition of Today programme on 13 October 2021 in which its presenter said Sussex academic Kathleen Stock was accused “falsely, of transphobia” was not duly accurate as it made it sound like the accusations were disproved (full ruling).
BBC | Antisemitic bus attack report wrong
27/1/2022: Media watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation after the BBC upheld complaints made about the accuracy and impartiality of its coverage of an antisemitic attack on a Hanukkah party bus. The complaints were “particularly in relation to the claim that an anti-Muslim slur had been heard from inside the bus” (read more).
Privacy | Mail on Sunday pays £1 privacy damages to Meghan
6/1/2022: The publisher of The Mail On Sunday has agreed to pay the Duchess of Sussex £1 nominal damages for misuse of private information plus an undisclosed but “substantial” sum for copyright infringement after their court battle (read more).
IPSO | Mail Online wrong to report ‘no-go areas for whites’
24/12/2021: Neil Vass complained that Mail Online breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors’ Code in an article headlined “British towns that are no-go areas for white people: Muslim author’s study of mosques reveals children ‘attacked for being white’, parents making families live under Taliban-like rules and women who can’t leave home without permission”, published on 4 June 2021. The complaint was upheld. IPSO said the headline claim was not supported by the article (full ruling).
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