resize text: decrease text size increase text size

Online Journalism News

PCC upholds mother's complaint against Sun's undercover video

Screenshot of Press Complaints Commission website The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has upheld a complaint against a video run on the Sun's website.

The footage showed a man, who had been convicted of distributing, making and possessing pornographic images of children, working at his local supermarket as part of a story focusing on a delivery he had made at work to a nursery school kitchen.

The man's mother complained that the video, which was published on February 21, was in breach of clause 10 of the PCC code, which prohibits the use of hidden cameras.

The Sun argued that the video, which was obtained by secret filming, was in the public interest, but agreed to remove it from its website and not reuse it unless 'there was a clear public interest to do so.'

While there was 'considerable public interest' in the story, the footage did not show the man making the nursery school delivery that was its focus, the PCC said in its adjudication.

"It was more difficult, however, to justify the taking and use of the audiovisual footage of the complainant’s son at work in the supermarket, given that the public interest element of the story related only to the delivery to the nursery. The Commission has always said that there must be a powerful public interest justification for the use of undercover filming," it said.

"There was insufficient justification for the filming on this occasion: there was no dispute that the complainant’s son worked for the supermarket, and the footage was not necessary to prove it," said the Commission in its ruling.

The PCC extended its remit to audio-visual content on news sites in February 2007, but said earlier this year it had only dealt with 'a handful of complaints' relating to this material.

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
pcc | sun | video | press complaints commission |

Sign up here for our free, daily email newsletter to get all the latest stories, jobs, tips and more.

Got a story? Call our news team on +44 (0)1273 384290 or email them.

Comments

No comments

You must be registered in order to post a comment. Click here to register or login below if you are already registered:

    

Forgotten your password? Please click here



JOB OF THE WEEK

Content manager

Reporting to the head of communications, this exciting, newly created role will involve working closely with NFU policy teams to identify writing opportunities for various internal and external media ...more

Freelancers for hire

  • Martyn Cornell

    Teddington, United Kingdom

  • Kirsten Morel

    St Helier, United Kingdom

  • Helen Gregory

    Brighton, United Kingdom

...see all

DISPLAY ADVERTISING

image

Target our journalism community of 16,000 subscribers and 100k+ visitors monthly. Call Ellie on 01273 384291

News Now