My complaint to the PCC

I’ve now submitted a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission regarding the Star’s lie of a front page yesterday. All correspondence relating to the complaint will be reproduced below.

(Update 23/7/10: I’ve had to resubmit the complaint because my initial one got lost. I’ve updated it slightly to include the second front page – what follows is the updated complaint)

(Update 26/7/10: I won’t post it in full because it’s so short, but I’ve just had a response saying they’re already investigating another complaint about the article and will keep me updated on its progress. I can hardly wait!)

Complaint

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you regarding the edition of the Daily Star published on Thursday July 15th. In particular, I believe that its front page article – ‘Muslim-only public loos’ – breaches Clause 1i) of the Editor’s Code. I am not directly affected by the article, but see no why reason why a valid complaint regarding statements of fact cannot be made by someone uninvolved in the story.

My complaint concerns two statements of fact that appear on the front page of the newspaper: that the toilets referred to are ‘Muslim-only’; and that they were paid for by the local Council using taxpayers’ (‘YOUR’) money. The article itself repeats the assertion that the toilets are ‘Muslim-only’, but does not repeat that they were paid for by the Council.

A more appropriate headline might have been ‘PUBLIC LOOS FOR ALL: Business spends ITS OWN money on toilets anyone can use’. As other media reports make clear, the toilets in question were paid for by Rochdale Exchange shopping centre, which is a private entity. In fact, the only Council connection appears to be the following, taken from the Star’s article:

“The pans were installed after centre management attended a “cultural” training course with community activist Ghulam Rasul Shahzad.

Shahzad, an ex-Rochdale Council training officer, runs courses on “cultural understanding and community cohesion”.

He took shopping centre manager Lorenzo O’Reilly on a tour around the town’s Central Mosque, even showing him the loos. And Mr O’Reilly decided to provide one squat hole in the ladies’ and one in the gents’ for “cultural reasons”.”

Quite clearly, I think, this shows that a former Council officer suggested the change. The Star provides no quote or fact in the article to support its front-page claim that the Council is responsible for this, nor that taxpayers’ money was used, and the Council itself has denied the charge.

As regards my second point, it is an incorrect assumption that these will be ‘Muslim-only loos’, which I take to mean facilities that will not be available to non-Muslims. It is also not true, as a matter of fact, that such facilities would only be used by Muslims. The type of toilet in question is also common in Japan and Argentina, neither of which are primarily Muslim countries. Mr Shahzad has confirmed this.

That inaccurate statement that the toilets were ‘Muslim-only’ was repeated in the headline of the front-page article on July 22nd: ‘Daily Star blocks Muslim-only loos’.

Unless the Daily Star can provide evidence to support either of those statements, I therefore request a correction. For the avoidance of doubt, should appropriate evidence for just one statement be produced, I would still expect a correction of the second.

Given that the claims I outline are made on the cover of the newspaper in large bold type, I request that any correction be published prominently as possible. In truth I would like to see a correction on the front page as the statements in question appear there with some prominence, but I understand that this is unlikely.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information or detail. I look forward to your response.

The original front page can be seen here (number 9): http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-National-Newspaper-Papers-Front-Pages-Thursday-July-15-2010/Media-Gallery/201007215665386?lpos=Home_Left_Promo_Region_0&lid=GALLERY_15665386_UK_National_Newspaper_Papers_Front_Pages_Thursday_July_15_2010

The second front page (July 22) is here (number 12): http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Newspaper-Front-Pages-Thursday-July-22-2010/Media-Gallery/201007315668885?lpos=UK_News_Left_Promo_Region_0&lid=GALLERY_15668885_Newspaper_Front_Pages_Thursday_July_22_2010

Media reports supporting my claim that the shopping centre paid for the toilets include:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-10644118

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1301771_shopping_centre_installs_squatting_toilets

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1302074_squatting_loos_decision_blasted_by_council_boss

A quote from Mr Shahzad stating that the toilets are open to anyone can be found here: http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/44422/shopping-centre-installs-squat-toilets