A question of ethics in the UK

There was recently a major discussion around the ethics violations of the Irish columnist, Jan Moir.

On the day before the funeral of the boy band singer, Stephen Gately, Moir wrote a scathing column titled A strange, lonely and troubling death.... in the Irish Mail, the newspaper in his hometown. She called into question the nature of his death and his supposedly monogamous gay relationship. Here’s one line to give you a taste of how insensitive the article was:

“The sugar coating on this fatality is so saccharine-thick that it obscures whatever bitter truth lies beneath. Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again”.

As a result the family and 22,000 other people complained to the Press Complaints Commission. This is more complaints than they have received in total for the last 5 years.

The complaint process has been closely followed by The Guardian, but has received scant coverage in her own paper. Although she apologized, it was mostly for the timing of the article rather than the content. The article has not been retracted nor is there any indication on the online version of the apology, except the paper has kept the 1, 606 comments that highlight the publics’ objections.

I think the story is interesting for a number of reasons. The complaints program was driven by his friends and family using Twitter and this may set a precedent for future consumer advocacy. Also I was surprised to see how hard it was for Jan Moir to apologize - insincere apologies don't just happen in the New York Times.

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