Gately's partner complains over Moir article
Stephen Gately's partner complains over Moir article
Thursday, 17, Dec 2009 05:42
By Lewis Bazley.
Stephen Gately's civil partner has made a formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission over Jan Moir's article about the Boyzone singer.
Andrew Cowles claims Daily Mail writer Moir's column, published on the eve of Gately's funeral in October, breached guidelines on accuracy, intrusion into grief or shock, and discrimination.
More than 25,000 people complained to the PCC about the article - which was originally entitled 'Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death' - while accompanying online adverts were removed from the Daily Mail website after the reaction to Moir's writing.
Thirty-three-year-old Gately was found dead at his Majorca holiday home on October 10th, with a post-mortem ruling he died of natual causes.
In her original article Moir had referred to the apparent pitfalls of openly gay Gately's "very different and more dangerous lifestyle", as well as mentioning the recent suicide of Matt Lucas' former civil partner.
She also wrote: "Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships."
Stephen Abell, director of the PCC, confirmed Mr Cowles' formal complaint about the article, which was provoked the most complaints ever for a single newspaper piece.
"We're now investigating this complaint which we are taking forward formally and we'll consider it together with the 25,000 complaints as soon as possible," he commented.
"We'll be writing to the newspaper with this latest complaint from Andrew Cowles."
To read Jan Moir's article as a Google Document, click here
Moir later wrote a column clarifying - but not apologising for - her remarks, saying it "was never my intention" to cause "any affront".
She added: "In writing that 'it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships' I was suggesting that civil partnerships - the introduction of which I am on the record in supporting - have proved just to be as problematic as marriages."
Moir did not apologise for her article and concluded her statement by saying: "In what is clearly a heavily orchestrated internet campaign I think it is mischievous in the extreme to suggest that my article has homophobic and bigoted undertones."