The Express website has accepted that it was wrong to publish a headline suggesting Muslims wanted to ban the new plastic £5 notes.
But press regulator IPSO has ruled that the mistake was not a significant inaccuracy so there was no breach of the Editors’ Code.
Miqdaad Versi complaine over a story headlined “New £5 notes could be BANNED by religious groups as Bank CAN’T promise they’re Halal” which was published on 2 December 2016.
The sub-headline said that because traces of animal fat had been found in the notes, “religious leaders are considering banning £5 notes from their places of worship”.
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Versi said the article was inaccurate because there are no Muslim religious groups who want to ban the £5 notes.
He said that given that the article focused on the views of Hindu religious leaders, the headline was not supported by the text because the term ‘Halal’ is not a term used by Hindus.
Express.co.uk accepted that the headline drew a link between “religious groups” banning the note and the Muslim term “Halal”, and therefore the newspaper said that the term “Halal” was used in an incorrect context.
It changed the headline in the online version to read: “New £5 note could be BANNED by religious groups as Bank CAN’T promise what note is made of”. It also added a correction to the story.
The IPSO committee said: “Taken in isolation, the headline carried the suggestion that the ‘religious groups’ were Muslim.
“However, read in context, the Committee was satisfied that this was used as a shorthand for concerns relevant to a number of faith groups. In that context, the reference to Halal was not significantly misleading.”
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