THE Daily Record has published a partially upheld adjudication against it from the Press Complaints Commission, concerning a story alleging that a Scottish Premier League footballer had got a ‘lap dancer’ pregnant.
A woman complained to the PCC following a story about her and a Hibs footballer. She complained the Record had published an intrusive photograph of her, as she left her home, and had harassed her, insodoing breaching both Clause 3 (privacy) and Clause 4 (harassment) of the Editors’ Code of Practice.
In response, the newspaper said that the photograph had not been taken of her on her property and that identifying details of her home had been cropped out.
The editor had also offered to remove the photograph from the newspaper’s archive.
The adjudication was published on page 16.
After confirming elements of the story, the woman made clear to the newspaper that she did not want any further contact with it and was given an undertaking to this effect by the managing editor, who passed this information on to journalists.
Despite this undertaking, she was approached on two further occasions in what the PCC described as “a clear case of harassment under the Code” and criticised the newspaper’s communication procedures. The Commission also agreed that Shields had “a reasonable expectation of privacy” when she was photographed.
Shields also complained – under the PCC’s Clause 1 (accuracy) – that the Record had said she fell pregnant around New Year and worked as a lap dancer, saying she conceived in December and was the ‘manager of a gentleman’s club’. But the PCC said it was satisfied that there was no breach of Clause 1 and ruled that the article did not contain “significant inaccuracies”.
Read the PCC adjudication, here.
