IPSO upholds law firm’s accuracy complaint against The Sun

IPSO upholds law firm’s accuracy complaint against Sun.

Leigh Day complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that The Sun breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in an article headlined, “War Slur Appeal”, published on 18 July 2018.

The article reported that Leigh Day had “accused soldiers of torturing and murdering Iraqi detainees”, but that a £31million inquiry in 2014 had found that these claims were “deliberate lies”.

The complainant said that the article suggested that the 2014 Al-Sweady Inquiry had found that the law firm had told “deliberate lies”, when in fact the Inquiry had not made any findings about the firm.

The newspaper did not accept that the article was inaccurate. It said that the Inquiry had found that the claims of torture and murder by British troops in Iraq were untrue. Lawyers of the firm were accused of personally endorsing these claims.

The Committee found that the article had not made clear that “the claims” the Inquiry had found to be “deliberate lies” had been made by Iraqi detainees, and that its findings, therefore, related to the conduct of these individuals only. The article had given the misleading impression that the Inquiry had found that the complainant had been knowingly dishonest.

This was a serious and potentially damaging allegation which required correction.