PCC upholds harassment complaint against Scottish Daily Mail
Complaint upheld after journalists from the newspaper visited a family's home four times in 24 hours seeking comment
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The Scottish Daily Mail breached the harassment clause of the Editors Code of Practice, the Press Complaints Commission ruled today, after reporters from the paper visited a family's home four times in 24 hours seeking comment. According to the PCC's adjudication , the complaint was made by the father of a student who had attended the tuition fee demonstrations in London last year. The newspaper published two articles about the student's involvement in the protests.
As well as the four visits by the newspaper's journalists and photographers, there was an additional approach made to the complainant when he was near his home, which led to the police being contacted.
The journalists had returned to the property because they had received new information that the complainant's son had been seen entering the home, the PCC said. The newspaper reportedly argued that its enquiries were in the public interest, it had a duty to seek a response to the allegations and that when their journalists were asked to leave, they did so.
But the Commission today said it had upheld the complaint under Clause 4 (Harassment) of the Editors' Code of Practice.
"The Commission accepted that there was a "limited public interest" in seeking the response of the complainant's son to the allegations against him.
"However, given that both the complainant and his family had been clear about not wanting to comment publicly about their situation, it judged that the journalists' persistent questioning of someone "not at the centre of the story, and against whom no allegations of impropriety had been made" constituted a breach of the Code".
The PCC adjudication added that following the complaint being made, the newspaper had been willing to write a private letter of regret to the complainant and also circulated an internal note "making clear that the family would have no comment on future stories".
