FURTHER TO MY BLOG OF AUGUST 2nd:-
It should not be imagined that when, in May 1981 THE TIMES of London attributed all the deaths in “the troubles” since 1969 to Republican violence it made an honest mistake.
The Ulster Unionist MP James Kilfedder had uttered exactly the same falsehood on radio, and Margaret Thatcher had echoed, if not preceded him in spreading it about.
The letter from the paper’s managing editor, John Grant mentioned in the Press Council adjudication was dishonest. John Grant had during many decades at the paper been its Military Correspondent and its home affairs correspondent and compiled many of its crosswords. He was an Oxford graduate (Balliol) and a British Army Officer, and not a a provincial hick or a half-literate hack. He was a smooth liar.
Within three months of the Press Council’s condemnation of THE TIMES’ falsehood, a Mr D F Conlan in Birmingham had occasion to report THE DAILY EXPRESS and THE DAILY STAR to the Press Council, which took another nine months to give its verdict, under the heading-
“WRONG NUMBER OF IRA TERROR VICTIMS”
“A complaint that the Daily Express wrongly referred to ‘2,000 victims of IRA terror’ and failed to correct it was upheld. Mr D.F.Conlan of Birmingham. claimed that the figure was a grave distortion of the truth. Half the victims,he alleged, were Roman Catholics, killed by Loyalists, the (British) Army and the police. Mr James McMillan, the paper’s political
advisor, replied ‘If Mr Conlan’s argument is taken to its logical conclusion, it would be necessary to split casualties in the Second World War to avoid upsetting those sympathetic to Adolf Hitler.’
A complaint by Mr Conlan on similar grounds against the Daily Star was also upheld.
In an editorial headed ‘An obscene charade’ the Daily Express said members of a New York jury who acquitted five men of gunrunning for the IRA had joined the accused at a victory celebration.President Reagan should move such trials from partisan New York. ‘That is the least we can expect from a friend and ally in the light of 2,000 victims of IRA terror’ said the editorial.
Mr Conlan told the Council he pointed out the paper’s error and sent statistics showing that 887 people had been killed by the loyalists and security forces.His letter was ignored.Mr
Morris Bennett, personal assistant to the editor, said Mr Conlan’s letter, received without supporting evidence, had been rejected. The words ‘2,000 victims of IRA terror’ referred to
deaths caused on both sides as a result of the IRA campaign. They did not imply that all victims were Protestants or Loyalists.
Adjudication: On the natural construction of its words, the DAILY EXPRESS’S reference to 2,000 victims of terror was inaccurate. Similarly, in the Council’s view the Daily Star’s reference to the blood of 2,260 deaths and 25,000 wounded being on the hands of the vice-president and publicity director of Sinn Fein inaccurately implied thato the existence at the IRA directly killed and wounded those victims. Having had these inaccuracies drawn to their attention, each newspaper should have carried a correction. Accordingly, the complaints against the Daily Express and the Daily Star are upheld.
This is the second time the council has had to rule on confusion in national newspapers about the number and nature of casualties in Northern Ireland. In particular it drawa attention ito the need to distinguish between the number of people killed in Northern Ireland as a result of the emergency and thus attributable directly or indirectly to the existence of terrorism. The Council reminds editors of the need to guard against ambiguity in this matter.”
THIS SERIES TO BE CONTINUED.
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