Gogglebox star Ellie Warner, along with her boyfriend and his father, has lost complaints made through press regulator IPSO against Mail Online and Mirror Online.
Warner, Nat Eddleston and his father Nathaniel Eddleston complained that articles about a crash that almost killed Nat in March had breached their privacy with photos from the scene.
Both news websites published a photo of Nat receiving treatment at the scene of the crash, in which he was hit by a car on his way home from a night out. The picture was pixelated by both titles so no details were visible. Both also published images of the scene showing the damage to the car involved.
IPSO ultimately said neither website had breached Clause 2 (privacy) or Clause 4 (intrusion into grief or shock) of the Editors’ Code of Practice as although the complainants would find the images “upsetting”, the shot of the general scene was taken in a public place while the picture of Nat did not show his injuries or treatment and was accompanied by a factual account of what happened.
For both titles, IPSO’s complaints committee said of the photo of Nat: “While the image would have been upsetting for the complainants to see, the Committee did not consider that its inclusion was insensitive.”
The committee also said Mail Online’s use of a video of the scene was “not gratuitous, [as] it illustrated the report on a serious accident and the impact on the local community. The publication of the video was handled sensitively…”
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