PCC: Daily Mail corrections column gives due prominence

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The Press Complaints Commission has ruled that the Daily Mail's new clarifications and corrections column, which features on page two of the newspaper, meets the requirements of "due prominence" in relation to two specific front page errors.

Associated Newspapers editor-in-chief Paul Dacre announced earlier this month that the Daily Mail, along with the Mail on Sunday and the Metro, would introduce a corrections and clarifications column on page two.

But fact-checking organisation Full Fact complained to the PCC that offers by the Daily Mail to correct errors in two front page articles within this column did not satisfy the Editors' Code. The two reports in question claimed that "Britain spends more on aid as a percentage of national income than any other country in the world – while British taxpayers suffer through an age of austerity" and that "violent behaviour in our classrooms has doubled in just a year". According to the PCC adjudication the newspaper accepted that there were errors in the two articles. "The correct position, in regard to the first article, was that Britain spent more on aid than any other major country. It also immediately acknowledged the error in the second article, explaining that it had inadvertently compared a previously reported figure for physical assault (around 450 pupils a day) against one which included verbal abuse and threatening behaviour (1,000 pupils a day)." In reaching a decision the commission said it took this opportunity "to set out its thinking as to what constitutes due prominence", adding that while it has "strong regard" for the placement of the original story this should not be the only factor. "The commission will consider the full circumstances surrounding the complaint: the nature of the breach of the Code; the scale of the error; the full context of the story; and the existence or otherwise of a designated corrections column. "Whatever the circumstances, however, the appearance on two separate occasions of significant inaccuracies on the newspaper's front page was a matter of serious concern to the commission. It was incumbent on the newspaper to correct the record in an appropriate way." The commission added that it may sometimes be appropriate for a correction to a front page story to be published on the front page, but not always. "In these cases, the commission had to have regard for the full context of the errors. While the mistakes were sloppy, the issues were not personal to the complainant and had not caused personal harm," the body said in its adjudication. "In addition, in the commission's view, the errors did not render the coverage of either story to be wholly inaccurate, including on the front page." The PCC concluded that page two corrections of the errors within the Daily Mail's new column were proportionate.

"The issue of 'due prominence' as set out in the Editors' Code will never be an exact science and, as the adjudication makes clear, there will always be legitimate calls for newspapers and magazines to highlight corrections with greater clarity,"

Stephen Abell, director of the PCC, added in a release. "It may be appropriate in some cases for a newspaper or magazine to publish a front page correction. However, whilst the errors in these two cases were unsatisfactory, the commission judged that the publication of suitable corrections on page two was a sufficient offer which met the 'due prominence' requirement of the Editors' Code".

The body added that it welcomed the introduction of a corrections column, commenting that it would be "good practice for newspapers and magazines to make use of this facility".