12922-17 Armstrong v metro.co.uk

Decision of the Complaints Committee 12922-17 Armstrong v metro.co.uk

Summary of complaint

1. Katharine Armstrong complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that metro.co.uk breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 2 (Privacy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in an article headlined “Revealed: The man who refused to let terrorists ruin his pint”, published on 5 June 2017.

2. The article reported on speculation surrounding the identity of a man who was photographed following the London Bridge terror attack, holding a pint, amongst a crowd of people who were fleeing the incident. The article said that “according to a Facebook post shared by a relative, and reported by the Liverpool Echo, [the man] genuinely did take his pint with him because of how expensive drinks are in London”. The article quoted from the Facebook post: “So that guy with the pint? Yes, that’s the elusive [name]. That’s what happens when you’re a Scouser paying London pint prices.’ The article did not name the author of this post.

3. The complainant, the sister of the man pictured and the author of the Facebook post, expressed significant concern that her comments, which she had published on her Facebook account, had been published in the article. She said that she had not shared her comments publicly: her Facebook privacy settings had meant that her post would have been visible to many of her Facebook friends, as well as, potentially, the friends of the seven people that she had “tagged” in the post. However, the complainant explained that not all of the individuals outside of her Facebook network would have been able to view her post, as not all of the people she had “tagged” had approved the post to be visible on their timeline. The complainant accepted, however, that it was possible that up to 1358 people may have been able to view it.

4. The complainant further said that when she had seen the photograph circulating on social media and had then published her Facebook post, she had been speculating on the identity of the man pictured. While the publication had reported her post accurately, no further steps were taken by the newspaper to establish the veracity of her claims.

5. The publication did not accept that the publication of the comments which the complainant had made on Facebook, represented an intrusion into her privacy, or that there had been a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article. It said that the complainant had published her post on social media, and had tagged friends in order to publicise it: there was no reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of a post which would have been seen by individuals both inside and outside her friendship network. It further said that after the story had been reported in other publications, it had reported the complainant’s post accurately; care was also taken to ensure the article had made clear that the man’s identity had been revealed “according” to a Facebook post by a family member.

Relevant Code provisions

6.    Clause 1 (Accuracy)

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.

ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and — where appropriate — an apology published. In cases involving IPSO, due prominence should be as required by the regulator.

iii) A fair opportunity to reply to significant inaccuracies should be given, when reasonably called for.

iv) The Press, while free to editorialise and campaign, must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.

Clause 2 (Privacy)*

i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.

ii) Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. Account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information.

iii) It is unacceptable to photograph individuals, without their consent, in public or private places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Findings of the Committee

7. The Committee recognised the importance of reporting on the immediate aftermath of a terror attack in a sensitive manner and acknowledged the complainant’s concern about the publication of the information relating to her Facebook post. In considering whether the complainant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to this information, the Committee carefully analysed the nature of the information which had been published about her, and the extent of the complainant’s own public disclosure of that information.

8. The article had reported the complainant’s comments, which had identified her brother’s name and which had conveyed her humorous explanation of his apparent reaction to the incident. The fact that the complainant’s brother was, or appeared to be, the person photographed, was not private information about her; the information about her was limited to the nature of her comments and the fact of her identification of him. The article had not named the complainant as the author of these comments, nor had the article identified the relationship between her and her brother.

9. The Committee also considered the manner in which the information contained in the article had been obtained. The Committee noted the complainant’s position that she had privacy settings in place on her Facebook at the time the article was published. However, those settings had made the post visible to many of the complainant’s Facebook friends, as well as, potentially, the friends of the seven people she had “tagged” in her post, one of whom had been a journalist for another publication, who had first brought it to public attention. Furthermore, the article had made clear that its report had been based on information which had been published in the other newspaper: the publication had not sourced the information in a manner which had intruded into the complainant’s privacy.

10. Taking account the nature of the information and the manner in which it had been previously circulated, the Committee concluded that the complainant did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to this information; nor did its publication in the article under complaint represent an intrusion into her private life. There was no breach of Clause 2.

11. The publication had accurately reported the complainant’s Facebook post; in those circumstances, and where the article had made clear that this information had been sourced from claims made in another publication, there was no failure to take care over the accuracy of the article. There was no breach of Clause 1.

Conclusion

12. The complaint was not upheld.

Remedial action required

13. N/A

Date complaint received: 05/06/2017
Date decision issued: 01/09/2017