The complainant, Councillor Jim Moher, said he had been the subject of harassment by the newspaper's news editor, which took the form of comments posted to her Facebook profile. The complainant had contacted the news editor while she was on bereavement leave, expressing disappointment that the newspaper had not published a number of his recent letters to the editor. The news editor regarded this as inappropriate and expressed her views in several posts on the site, including one that said, "I plan to make his life a misery as much as possible." The complainant described the posts - which had been "liked" by 54 people and had attracted 43 comments by other users - as "sheer venom" and "shocking."
The newspaper argued that the incident did not constitute intimidation or harassment as the comments had been made on her personal Facebook account and could only be seen by a limited number of her friends. The news editor was on bereavement leave when she received the complainant's email, and had found it upsetting.
The Commission ruled that the comments had contained abusive language, personal insults and an implied threat of violence - albeit not one that was intended to be taken seriously. It also noted that the news editor's Facebook privacy settings had made the comments visible to almost 250 Facebook friends. While acknowledging that the comments had been published at a difficult time for the news editor personally, the Commission had no hesitation in finding that this constituted intimidation within the meaning of Clause 4 and a serious failure to uphold the highest professional standards required by the preamble to the Code.
Separate complaints under Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 2 (Opportunity to reply) were not upheld.
Charlotte Dewar, Director of Complaints and Pre-publication Services at the PCC, said: "This ruling by the Commission demonstrates that the terms of Clause 4 apply to all professional conduct by journalists, and that there is not always a clear line between the personal and professional. Journalists must take care when discussing professional relationships, including on social media."
To read the adjudication, please click here. The adjudication was published in the Brent & Kilburn Times on 29th May on page 4 and online.
The Editors' Code of Practice can be read in full here.
