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  1. Media Law
May 20, 2016updated 23 May 2016 6:32am

Daily Star censured by IPSO after reporting untrue Pippa and Harry romance rumours

By Press Gazette

The Daily Star has been censured by press regulator IPSO after it said Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton were rumoured to be enjoying a “secret romance”.

The Daily Star printed the front-page story in December 2015 but Harry complained, saying the claims were “completely untrue”.

Today the paper published an IPSO ruling that said that the “manner in which the claims were presented was significantly misleading”.

The ruling was published on page two, but also flagged up on the front page.

The original article reported that a US magazine had published claims about the young royal and his sister-in-law’s relationship and said Clarence House had declined to comment.

The ruling printed on Friday said: “The article had clearly attributed the claims about the complainant and Ms Middleton to the US magazine. While it had not contained a positive assertion of their truth, there was no suggestion that there was reason to doubt their veracity.

“Furthermore, the article had stated that ‘Clarence House had declined to comment’ but the newspaper had not argued – in response to the complaint – that such an approach had been made.

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“The only conclusion which the committee could draw was that the newspaper had not sought to verify the claims, as reported.”

The complaint that the article breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice was upheld.

This is the second complaint about a story on the Royal Family that has been upheld in a week.

On Wednesday, The Sun printed an IPSO ruling that said its front page headline “Queen backs Brexit” was misleading.

The complaint was the first by a reigning monarch to the official press watchdog in the UK.

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