Non-profit news organisation Open Democracy has won a complaint against the Express over an article wrongly suggesting it was run by billionaire George Soros.
Regulator the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) said the article “gave the misleading impression that Open Democracy was operated, or had been founded by, George Soros – and that he therefore had some degree of control over it”.
The November 2023 article, which only appeared online, was headlined “’Keep your nose out!’ Brexit hating billionaire George Soros in Scottish independence plot”.
The article discussed a “Break Up of Britain” conference held in Edinburgh and reported that “American/Hungarian billionaire George Soros’ leftwing anti-Brexit Open Democracy organisation was one of the main backers”.
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It also claimed that “most worryingly for critics, was the involvement of George Soros’ Open Democracy whose Adam Ramsay chaired an event with the globalist organisation livestreaming the whole conference as one of its major sponsors”.
The article was updated the day after it was first published, with a subheading added that read: “EXCLUSIVE: Controversial foreign billionaire George Soros’s campaign group Open Democracy supported a “Break Up Britain” conference in Scotland this week.”
Open Democracy says George Soros claim ‘undermined its editorial independence’
Open Democracy complained that the article inaccurately gave the impression that Soros owned or controlled it and also wrongly described it as a “campaign group”. It said it was an “independent media organisation, not a ‘campaign group'”.
It told IPSO that “both of these alleged inaccuracies undermined its editorial independence and harmed its reputation”.
Open Society Foundations, a separate organisation that Soros founded, has made numerous donations to Open Democracy totalling about 13% of its income in 2022.
Open Democracy said its involvement in the conference was not financial and solely as a media partner, promoting and livestreaming the event.
In response to the complaint and “as a gesture of goodwill” the Express amended the article, including to describe Open Democracy instead as a “George Soros-funded campaign group”.
Open Democracy maintained that the article continued to suggest Soros owned or controlled the organisation and said it now suggested he funded it personally, which still undermined its independence.
The Express had also added a line that said: “Open Democracy describes itself as a media organisation but is seen by critics as a leftwing activist campaign group.”
But Open Democracy said this was false and “another slur that damaged its reputation”.
The Express argued that when the article used statements such as “George Soros’ leftwing anti-Brexit Open Democracy organisation”, this was “not a literal possessive statement, but rather a representative one”. Open Democracy responded that this was “nonsense” and “suggested a stronger, and more direct, relationship between Mr Soros and the organisation”.
The Express also claimed Soros had a “clear association and strong connection” to Open Democracy, pointing to the Open Society Foundations funding and the fact he had an author page on Open Democracy’s website.
IPSO says Express article was ‘significantly misleading’
IPSO’s complaints committee found the article in breach of Clause 1 (accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice.
It noted that the article “referred to Mr Soros interchangeably with Open Democracy” and that while the Express “set out the link between Mr Soros and the organisation during the investigation into the complaint, this information was not reported in the article – the article did not explain the basis for linking Mr Soros with Open Democracy, which was that he had founded a grant-making organisation which in turn had later given grants to Open Democracy”.
It went on: “In these circumstances, the committee was of the view that the original version of the article gave the misleading impression that Open Democracy was operated, or had been founded by, George Soros – and that he therefore had some degree of control over it.
“The committee did not consider that the fact Mr Soros founded Open Society Foundations, a grant awarding organisation which provided some of the complainant’s funding in 2022, was a sufficient factual basis for the impression given.”
IPSO said suggesting that a specific individual described as a “controversial foreign billionaire” exercised some degree of control over Open Democracy was “significantly misleading information, given the implications it could have regarding the organisation’s editorial independence”.
The regulator said it was also wrong to report the “misleading impression that Mr Soros directly funded the organisation”.
However, IPSO said it was OK to call Open Democracy a “campaign group” because it had been “involved, to some degree, in a conference aimed at promoting Scottish independence”.
IPSO also said it was justified for the article to say Open Democracy “was one of the main backers” of the conference even though it had not financially contributed.
IPSO said the Express was reasonable to say Open Democracy “describes itself as a media organisation but is seen by critics as a leftwing activist campaign group” because this was “reported as a subjective criticism – and not as a statement of fact”.
The article remains online but now begins with a correction stating: “This article originally strongly implied that George Soros exercised a level of control over openDemocracy. The current version of the article refers to openDemocracy as being “funded” by George Soros. Both versions of this article were misleading. Mr Soros does not own or control openDemocracy – nor does he directly fund the organisation.
“Rather, a grant-giving organisation founded by Mr Soros awarded grants which totalled a small portion of openDemocracy’s total funding in 2022. This correction has been published following an upheld ruling by the Independent Press Standards Organisation.”
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