The Sun online agreed to publish a correction after claiming staff at Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland deliberately cut the water supply of an elderly neighbour in order to drive her out.
The article was published on 26 October, 2016, under the headline: “You’ve been trumped: Scots gran, 92, ‘forced to get water with wheelbarrow’ in dispute over Donald Trump golf course”.
The website said it based its report on a TV documentary and another online report.
The Sun’s story claimed a pipe damaged in the construction of the course meant the woman was “forced to get water with a wheelbarrow” and was still doing so three years on.
Related
In a complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Trump International Gold Links Scotland said the story was inaccurate and breached Clause 1 of the Editor’s Code of Practice.
It said the report gave the misleading impression that it had been responsible for poisoning the 92-year-old’s water supply and had cut off her water in an effort to drive her from her home.
The website said it did not consider that the article suggested the golf course instructed its workers to cut off the woman’s water supply.
While the Sun did not accept a breach of the code, it did agree to remove the article from its website and when offered to publish a 175-word clarification (in full below) following the complaint to IPSO.
As the matter had been resolved, IPSO’s complaints committee did not rule on whether there had been a breach of the code.
The clarification on the sun.co.uk reads:
We published an article “You’ve Been Trumped: Scots Gran, 92, ‘forced to get water with a wheelbarrow’ in dispute over Donald Trump’s golf course” on 26th October 2016 which followed a report online elsewhere. Trump International Golf Links Scot-land (“Trump International”) has since assured us the headline and related article are incorrect in various respects.
Trump International states that: the water supply pipe concerned runs under land owned by Trump International, to a well; that supply pipe was not shown on plans and was inadvertently breached by contractors in 2010; the contractors repaired the pipe immediately; further work took place around the well in 2014 and 2015; this work was neither instructed by nor approved by Trump International and was not carried out by Trump International contractors.
While the supply of water to neighbouring properties is not the responsibility of Trump Inter-national, it offered in November 2015 to connect the relevant properties to its mains network and this offer has never been taken up by the Forbes family. We are happy to make this clear.
Picture: Reuters/David Moir/File Photo
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
