Front page headline of the Southaldn Times, 26 Sept. 2007 The Press Council has upheld a complaint by politician Bill English against the Southland Times for naming his son in its coverage of a story about homophobic comments posted on the internet by the youth. Those comments were first made public by GayNZ.com in a story which targeted Mr English himself, and his refusal to address the matter, even off the record, over several weeks despite repeated advice from us that his son was propagating hateful comments and attitudes towards gay people. Such comments create environments of self doubt and self-hatred in some gay people which can haunt them all their lives and which contribute to a suicide rate three to four times that of the general population. The general media initially all but ignored our accusations, which were supported by quotes from the young man's postings, against Mr English, until he or his spin doctor put out an 'English to consult lawyers over disgraceful attack on son' press release. It was an inspired piece of spin, because our attack was actually on the inaction of a high profile politician who has postured about parental responsibility, rather than the son, a minor who is presumably under some form of parental influence. For that reason it was not relevant to us or anyone which son it was, or his name. However, to be fair, we did provide a link to the son's web-pages, as proof of our claims, where his name was big and bold for all to see. The young man publicly put his name to his abusive postings, not us. It is a shame that the Southland Times, the paper for whom English is a local MP, directly named the son and left itself open to public censure, but to give credit where it is due, it was one of the few newspapers which actually did some serious groundwork and put the issue in perspective for its readers. Most of the other media just regurgitated the content and tone of English's press release. Swallowed it hook, line and lazy sinker. The Southland Times asked questions, gathered opinions and produced its own, independent view of the matter and for this it is to be commended. In a nation of pared down, under-resourced newsrooms where regurgitating pre-digested stories fed down the line to fill the gaps between the ads is too often the norm, the Southland Times demonstrated a commitment to original reporting, providing real perspective and serving the interests of its readers, even the glbt ones. The re-appearance of this story reminds us that the reaction of Bill English was to publicly attack the bearer of the unwelcome news, while his boss, the erstwhile gay-friendly John Key, defended his deputy and demeaned the misery and persecution of young glbt people by dismissing the toxic diatribes as merely a pretty rugged example of the sort of attitudes traditionally expressed by youths and not worth getting riled up about. 2008 is an election year, so perhaps this is as good a time as any to start canvassing the political parties on their views of issues facing glbt New Zealanders. Perhaps we'll start with the National Party. Watch this space. Jay Bennie - 7th March 2008