Legal Research

Come again? Not if can?t prove it?s in public interest says PCC

By scott

The Press Complaints Committee has upheld complaints against Irish Newspaper ‘The Sunday World’ for two newspaper reports about a “shocking new group sex craze” (?bukkake’). The PCC agreed with complainant that the stories were inaccurate, intrusive, and an invasion of their privacy.

The paper, which conducted an undercover operation, alleged that the complainant charged an entrance fee to attend such events; “big money” doing so; was a “secret male escort”/”gigolo”; and that he and his wife were a “sex-for-sale” couple. The Couple refuted all these claims, saying they made very little money from their hobby ? making videos for the female models’ website -and certainly did not sell themselves to members of the public for cash. not make themselves sexually available to members of the public for money.

The Paper claimed regardless of all that they had been justified in exposing the event on grounds of protecting public health: a senior medical officer had said that the participants were at risk from sexually transmitted diseases.

Hmm, tabloid paper exposes sex party story out of concern for public health. Yes, that sounds believable ? if you have never read a tabloid newspaper.

The PCC said that it this case there seems to be no sufficient public interest behind the decision to use “a hidden camera to film the complainant, without his consent, in a private place in which a number of participants were about to be involved in consensual, legal sexual activity.” It had also failed provided sufficient evidence to support any of its assertions that they made big money or sold themselves for money. It concluded the “case revealed a bad editorial lapse on the part of the newspaper, compounded by an unacceptably slow response to the PCC investigation.”

Full post as published by Information Overload on July 26, 2010 (boomark / email).