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Complaint upheld against story on MP's son

Thu 6 Mar 2008 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback

The Press Council has upheld a complaint lodged by National MP Bill English against The Southland Times for their front-page story 'English may sue GayNZ on article'. The 26 September 2007 newspaper article highlighted English's response to GayNZ.com's revelations last September that the MP had allowed his son to continue posting homophobic comments on his Bebo webpage, even after GayNZ.com journalists had alerted English to the page and comments. English had responded to GayNZ.com's article 'Anti-gay webpage linked to Nat MP's son' by threatening legal action. New Zealand's Press Council pointed to principles relating to privacy and care for young people. Other media had reported on the story, but The Southland Times had identified the 14-year-old by name. "The newspaper seems to have had little heed for the requirement to proceed with care in reporting on the activities of a young person who in this case may simply have done something very immature," the Press Council concluded. GayNZ.com content editor Jay Bennie says "we felt ourselves that there was a very fine line between naming Mr English's son – even when he had already gone so public with his name above the Bebo page comments – and obscuring his identity. But on balance, we decided that if our readers wanted to find out more about the young man, they could easily go to the webpage in question, where his identity was clear for all to see. "It would be sad if the Press Council finding against the Southland Times obscured the initial concern - that a public figure was standing idly by whilst knowing his son was actively adding to the kind of homophobic abuse suffered by gay and lesbian New Zealanders and particularly by gay and lesbian youth."    

Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff

First published: Thursday, 6th March 2008 - 10:50am

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