View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
June 3, 2009

Sunday World rapped by PCC over inaccuracies

By PA Mediapoint

A complaint that Sunday World in Northern Ireland was inaccurate in articles containing allegations about a woman’s relationship with a Sinn Fein member of the Province’s Assembly has been upheld by the Press Complaints Commission.

Angela Foran complained that two articles in the newspaper were inaccurate.

One, headlined “Sinn Fein MLA dumps wife for Brit army general’s daughter”, appeared in the newspaper on 27 January last year, and the other, headlined “Love rat McHugh dumped by Brit lover”, on 10 August last year.

The stories claimed that Foran was the daughter of a British Army General who had links to the intelligence services, that she had had an affair with Sinn Fein MLA Gerry McHugh, and suggested that the affair led to the breakdown of McHugh’s marriage and resignation from the party.

Foran said McHugh had not left his wife to “shack up” with her, and denied having caused the breakdown of his marriage, saying the relationship happened long after McHugh and his wife had separated.

Her father had done national service in the Army, but did not reach the rank of general and had not worked in the security services.

The newspaper stood by the accuracy of the central allegation of the affair.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

It said the information about Foran’s father stemmed from Foran herself as part of an earlier story, together with its own security sources.

Foran said she had never mentioned her father when speaking previously to the newspaper.

The PCC said: “Although the complainant had not denied having a relationship with Mr McHugh, she had denied two significant aspects of the coverage: the claim that Mr McHugh had left his wife for her, and the assertion that her father had been a General in the British Army who worked in the intelligence services.

“Neither of these points had been satisfactorily corroborated, and the paper had not offered to publish a correction.

“There was therefore a breach of clause one of the code, and this part of the complaint was upheld.”

The Commission did not uphold two further complaints from Foran.

On her claim that photographs of her, for which she had voluntarily posed for a previous article, were misleadingly edited, it said it did not think that cropping the images in this way would have misled readers.

On her complaint that the articles intruded into her private life in breach of Clause 3, covering privacy, the PCC said that in the context of a story which connected her relationship to McHugh’s resignation, it did not consider that referring to the existence of the relationship – which appeared to have been made public by the pair attending a number of events together – raised a breach of the Code, particularly when there were no private details about anything that happened within the relationship.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network