23/9/22: IPSO has rapped MyLondon for an inaccuracy that came about because it relied “on a claim published on an unofficial Twitter account”.
It was also published before the deadline given in the right to reply email to David Morris MP, the subject of the story.
The January 2022 story was headlined “Taxpayers angry at MP who expensed £229.20 first class train ticket to London rather than travelling standard class” and reported that Morris had been criticised for the “expensive fare”.
However Morris said it had not been a single ticket, but he, his wife and his baby had all been travelling.
The claim that it was a single ticket had come from the MP Expenses Twitter account, which has just over 2,000 followers and posts details of expense claims once they have been published by IPSA.
Ruling that the article breached Clause 1 (accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, IPSO said: “The publication was entitled to rely on the information included on the IPSA website, but it was obliged to take care not to publish inaccurate or misleading information in doing so… The IPSA website did not specify how many train tickets the expense covered, and the Committee therefore considered that the publication should have sought this information prior to publishing the article.
“Relying on a claim published on an unofficial Twitter account that the expense covered a single ticket did not amount to sufficient care taken over the accuracy of the information.”
The regulator added that publishing the story before the deadline given to the MP meant he had “inadequate opportunity” to respond.
IPSO also said the publication “should have apologised” but refused to do so.
A further breach of the code, it said, resulted from the description of the fare by a member of the public as “expensive” when “it was not clear to what extent, if any, those comments were informed by an accurate understanding of how many tickets had actually been purchased”. Full ruling here.
Picture: Reuters/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo
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