The Hamilton Advertiser, one of two Trinity Mirror titles found against in today's PCC adjudication
The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against two Scottish newspapers which printed a photo of a schoolgirl without her parents consent.
The Wishaw Press and Hamilton advertiser were ruled to have breached Clause 6 of the editors' code of practice, which covers stories involving children, when they named and printed an image of the 13-year-old.
The article reported that Lanarkshire Council was paying £27,000 over three years for the girl, who is granddaughter of the Scottish member of parliament for Motherwell and Wishaw, to take taxis to and from dance classes in Glasgow.
The image published by the newspapers had been taken when her grandfather, John Pentland MSP, was elected to the Scottish parliament.
Trinity Mirror, which publishes the newspapers, said the stories were in the public interest and argued that the photo of the girl was in the public domain and her father had commented in the story, leading them to believe that it would not be a problem to publish the photo.
The PCC acknowledged the public interest in the story but found that "this could have been served without the identity of the child being highlighted".
Stephen Abell, director of the PCC, said: "The Editors' Code contains
strict provisions designed to protect children, and requires an
exceptional public interest to override this. Although the Commission
recognised the public interest in the story and welcomed the offers the
newspapers had made to the family to remedy the situation, the
complaints were upheld on the basis that the newspapers had not met the
high requirements required by the Code".
The newspapers offered to remove the image from their websites and send a private letter of apology to the family, but the complainant, the girl's father, requested a public apology.
Upholding the complaint, the PCC stated: "The Code requires an exceptional public interest in cases involving children, and the Commission did not consider that this high requirement had been met on this occasion. While the Commission welcomed the newspaper's offers - including a private letter of apology and the removal of the photograph from its website - the complaint was upheld under Clause 6."
The newspapers offered to remove the image from their websites and send a private letter of apology to the family, but the complainant, the girl's father, requested a public apology.
Upholding the complaint, the PCC stated: "The Code requires an exceptional public interest in cases involving children, and the Commission did not consider that this high requirement had been met on this occasion. While the Commission welcomed the newspaper's offers - including a private letter of apology and the removal of the photograph from its website - the complaint was upheld under Clause 6."
Free daily newsletter
If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).
Related articles
- Otherworld aims to make local news and events relevant through location-based storytelling
- Advice from BBC News and Trinity Mirror for introducing debunking into the newsroom
- Can publishers ‘good-ad’ their way out of the ad-blocking phenomenon?
- 'It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness' – Q&A with Alison Gow
- What Trinity Mirror's new formats taught news about digital
