Coverage of a rector who resigned his post over his relationship with the church secretary did not break rules on privacy, the Press Complaints Commission has ruled.

In August the Jersey Evening Post revealed that Rev Francis Mason was resigning over his relationship with Gill Holl, and that Mr Mason’s wife and children were facing an uncertain future as a result.

The story also mentioned Mrs Holl’s husband, David, who complained to the Commission under Section 3 of the Editors’ Code of Practice, claiming that the paper had used his name without consent and had breached his and his children’s right to privacy.

But because the Post only mentioned his name, the commission rejected the complaints, stating it did not consider an individual’s name to be an intrinsically private detail.

Editor Chris Bright said: “The ruling was that just using their names was not a breach of privacy.”

He said his editorial team had treated the story well in what was a difficult situation, where everyone had sympathy with all parties.

The Jersey Evening Post ran the story on page three, in keeping with its tradition of not sensationalising the news.

Chris said: “We looked long and hard at it because we are not a sensationalist kind of newspaper and we were particularly careful not to be intrusive.

“On this particular occasion the public interest meant we had a story we thought our readers should know about.

“I was pleased with the degree of sensitivity with which the story was presented.”

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