Complaint
Tom Sinclair complained about this online article, published in 2019, about the financial collapse of his company, the Herald Group, and the consequent losses to creditors and to employees to whom wages were owed. In particular, Mr Sinclair contested the statement 鈥淭om Sinclair, who runs The Herald in west Wales, has defied court orders to repay more than 拢70,000 to creditors鈥 because the 拢70,000 did not relate to the Herald, it was not his personal debt, and the wages issue (which amounted to only a few thousand pounds) had been resolved. The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the 麻豆社鈥檚 editorial standards of accuracy and fairness.
Outcome
Because of the passage of time it was not possible for the ECU to obtain copies of the relevant County Court judgements, but it appeared from contemporaneous notes that the extent of the Herald Group鈥檚 debts had been accurately reported in the article. The article was also accurate at the time of publication in reporting that wages were still owing to staff, though Mr Sinclair said they were subsequently paid. However, the wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair鈥檚 personal responsibility, rather than that of the group of newspaper and printing companies of which he was the Company Director. In that respect the article failed to meet the 麻豆社鈥檚 standards of due accuracy.
Partly upheld