Independent apologises for ‘seriously defamatory’ headline
Independent News & Media has apologised for a “seriously defamatory” headline on a comment piece by blogger and writer Zoe Margolis published in the Independent on Sunday [see background here]. In a correction published on its site today, the newspaper said:
On 7 March 2010, we published an article by Zoe Margolis. In part of the first edition of the newspaper and online, this article carried the headline, “I was a hooker who became an agony aunt”. This was written by the newspaper not Ms Margolis. We accept that Ms Margolis is not and never has been “a hooker” or otherwise involved in the sex industry. The wording of the headline was a mistake and seriously defamatory of Ms Margolis. We offer our sincere apologies to Ms Margolis for the damage to her reputation and the distress and embarrassment which she has suffered.
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March 29th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
[...] to Comments Defamation can have very negative impact on people’s life or institutions’ reputation. However this should not be a reason for people in UK to sue anybody [...]
May 20th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
[...] On 12 March the IoS apologised for the error, which it said was written by the newspaper not Ms Marg…: “We accept that Ms Margolis is not and never has been ‘a hooker’ or otherwise involved in the sex industry. The wording of the headline was a mistake and seriously defamatory of Ms Margolis. We offer our sincere apologies to Ms Margolis for the damage to her reputation and the distress and embarrassment which she has suffered.” [...]