The Guernsey Press has been cleared of biased reporting after a complaint from the island’s government.

The Press Complaints Commission rejected all objections raised by the Home Affairs Committee committee over the paper’s coverage of the case of prisoner Philip Webb.

Webb was moved from a prison on the island to one at Winchester and within three days had hanged himself.

The Press began a series of articles probing the reasons behind his transfer and whether he was fit for the move.

It emerged that a doctor called to certify him as fit did not get a chance to examine the prisoner and the paper also revealed that the island’s police were not sorry to see him leave.

Now the Home Affairs Committee has been accused of double standards after wasting public money on the false accusation of biased reporting.

The 20-page complaint to the commission alleged the newspaper’s reporting of the Webb affair was salacious, biased and unbalanced.

In a personal attack the committee also questioned the ‘good faith’ of editor Richard Digard, accusing him of lying and claiming the newspaper’s demand for answers to the questions raised by the Webb affair was “a type associated with the worst forms of journalism”.

But the commission, whose members include Lord Wakeham, Sir Brian Cubbon and Professor Robert Pinker, rejected the claims.

Editor Mr Digard told HoldTheFrontPage: “We carried a lively series of articles where we consistently condemned the prison service for the way it conducted the affair.

“We didn’t let this go and it rankled with the committee, which is responsible for law and order, the police and prisons on the island.”

He told his readers in an editorial column after being cleared: “Over the last few months, the Committee for Home Affairs has thrown a whole series of complaints and allegations against this newspaper for the way it covered the Philip Webb affair.

“Today, we are exonerated by the Press Complaints Commission, which dismissed the committee’s extravagant claims of bias, salacious and inaccurate reporting.

“We welcome the adjudication. Not because it clears the name and good reputation of the Guernsey Press – important though that is – but because it underlines any newspaper’s role in accurately and fairly criticising questionable performance, especially if the target is a branch of government.

“Newspapers, say the PCC, are entitled to take a partisan stance provided they clearly distinguish between comment, conjecture and fact, which we did, and were happy to be accountable for so doing.

“Home Affairs, on the other hand, has made its allegations – including personal attacks on an employee of this newspaper – to third parties and not to the paper or the Guernsey Press Co. Ltd.

“No matter. We will not question their good faith in doing so or question the need to spend taxpayers’ money when a simple telephone call here would have been sufficient to correct any error of fact.

“Others have already drawn their own conclusions from the committee’s actions and it does seem that members were keener to squash criticism rather than deal with the reasons that provoked it.

“For the fact remains the way the Webb affair was handled was flawed, that there are unanswered questions about the transfer – and the reasons for it – that led to Webb’s suicide in Winchester Prison.

“Such concerns as we expressed related solely to that and the wholly inadequate way the committee dealt with legitimate criticism.

“As Webb’s stepfather puts it: ‘We have lost our son and they are more worried about what the paper said than the truth’.”

Politician Eric Walters, who supported Webb’s stepfather and mother in a campaign to hold a public inquiry, has attacked the committee for the complaint.

He praised the way the Guernsey Press and the other media supported the family because of the way they had been treated.

“When I read it, it was obvious that it would please some and upset others but there always has to be someone who represents the underdog,” he said.

Deputy Walters added he thought Home Affairs had used the media: “The media is a popular whipping boy when things go wrong but I do not go along with their comments that it’s gutter press.

“Sometimes they are aggressive, but that can be seen as good journalism.”

He wants the Home Affairs Committee to justify why the complaint was made.

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