Tag Archives: stephen gately

Mark Pack

Did all the complaints to the PCC over Jan Moir achieve something?

By Mark Pack | Tue 2nd March 2010 - 10:33 pm

It’s a fair question to ask: lots of complaints made over Jan Moir’s piece on the death of Stephen Gately, none upheld.

However, as Enemies of Reason points out, that isn’t the only measure of success:

But I would like to hope – hope against hope – that the storm the Daily Mail found itself in after Moir’s ill-judged and venomous article made them, in some small way, feel they were a little more vulnerable to the outside world, and their own readers, than they were before. It’s easy to dismiss the rantings of a few pointless troublemakers like me, for example,

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 19 Comments
Malcolm Coles

The Independent View: Why it’s time to replace the PCC

By Malcolm Coles | Thu 25th February 2010 - 1:50 pm

Surprise, surprise. The Press Complaints Commission rejected the complaints about Jan Moir’s nasty attack on Stephen Gately.

If there’s any good to come out of this affair, perhaps it’s that this case reinforces the case for wholesale reform of the PCC. Here’s why.

The PCC is not independent

The PCC claims to be independent. One of the advantages of self regulation ought to be that it keeps the press out of the hands of politicians while still holding newspapers to account.

The PCC fails on both counts.

The Chair of the 17-member Commission is Baroness Buscombe, a Conservative member of the House of Lords. Her party …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

Stephen Gately’s partner complains to PCC over Moir article as a “connected party”

By Helen Duffett | Thu 17th December 2009 - 10:36 pm

From the BBC:

“Stephen Gately’s civil partner Andrew Cowles has formally complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over a Daily Mail article about his death.

Mr Cowles claims Jan Moir’s column, published in October, breached guidelines on accuracy, intrusion into grief or shock, and discrimination.

A PCC investigation will also consider the 25,000 complaints about the piece.”

As Mark pointed out in October the Press Complaints Commission’s remit states:

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Mark Pack

Jan Moir: the dilemma for the PCC (and what you should say in your complaint)

By Mark Pack | Sat 17th October 2009 - 12:54 pm

The reaction to Jan Moir’s article about the death of Stephen Gately has been widespread and swift. Fuelled primarily by Twitter and Facebook, complaints about homophobia flooded in on the Daily Mail, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) and the firms who were unlucky enough to have their adverts appearing on the page. The headline was changed, the PCC’s website crashed, the adverts were pulled and many members of the public got a taste of how effective a simple tweet, email or phone call can be.

The big dilemma now is for the Press Complaints Commission because, although many of the messages urging people to complain to the PCC were helpfully specific about which clauses of its code should be referenced, the real issue for the PCC to decide is not in the code itself.

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | 17 Comments
Stephen Tall

Stephen Gately RIP: New beginning, sad ending

By Stephen Tall | Sun 11th October 2009 - 12:05 pm

RIP Stephen Gately, the singer who rose to fame thanks to Boyzone, and who has died aged just 33. His solo career was not the soaring success he might have hoped when the Irish band split up – though three Top 20 singles is more than most of the rest of us will manage.

Indeed, it’s likely that Lib Dems will be among those most familiar with his work, for his debut solo track, New beginning, was adopted by the party as its theme tune for the 2001 general election (and used subsequently at many party conferences).

Lib Dem blogger Stephen Glenn pays fuller tribute here. Below is the TOTP video of New beginning:

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Posted in Obituaries | Also tagged | 4 Comments
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