By Sarah Lagan
A complaint made against the Brecon &
Radnor Express for not reporting a man’s acquittal promptly after
covering previous details of the case has been upheld by the Press
Complaints Commission.
The Express reported how George Millichamp
was charged for assault by Llandrindod Wells Magistrates Court but did
not cover his acquittal.
The paper insisted that because the
reporter who had been covering the case was absent through illness, the
onus was on Millichamp to prove he had been acquitted.
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When the
evidence materialised, the Express’s editor published a short paragraph
stating he had been cleared, but with no apology.
Millichamp said the paper’s reluctance to publish the details had led people asking him whether he had been in any more trouble.
The
PCC ruled it was not Millichamp’s responsibility to produce the
evidence and that the editor appeared to have made no effort to find
out the correct position.
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In its adjudication the PCC said:
“Failure to publish the verdict created an unnecessarily misleading
impression about the complainant’s position for several months in
breach of Clause 1 (accuracy)”.
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