6/9/22: IPSO has rapped the websites of the Mirror and Express for failing to “distinguish clearly between comment and fact” in two articles covering domestic abuse allegations.
Mirror.co.uk and Express.co.uk published articles in September and November 2019, respectively, covering women who fled the UK to escape abusive former partners. The articles both featured or focused on testimony from the same unnamed woman, who fled to Cyprus with her children after her ex was reportedly granted access to them. The ex, who was not named by IPSO, complained, disputing key facts in the articles, in particular that he had been abusive.
The Mirror and Express said they would not confirm to IPSO whether the complainant was indeed the father in the article, so as to protect the identities of the mother and children. For the same reason, they said they could not hand over the documents they gathered to verify the mother’s claims, which they said included “social work reports, counselling notes, police reports of domestic violence, psychiatric reports, Court Orders, and relevant communications from the abusive partner such as text messages”.
IPSO, stressing it “was not making a finding on the accuracy of the allegations, but whether there had been a breach of the Editors’ Code”, determined there had been one. The sites, IPSO said, “had stated as fact that the ex-partner of the woman featured in the article had abused her… which the publication was not in a position to demonstrate as true.”
IPSO said this represented a failure to separate fact from comment, and instructed both websites to publish its adjudication online. (Full rulings here and here)
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