A football fan who accused a daily newspaper of “bias” against her team had her complaint rejected by the press watchdog

Leanne Waton complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that the Daily Record breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in three articles relating to Hibernian FC.

The online version of the first article complained of contained a sub-headline which reported that Hibernian supporters had been warned not to invade the “pitch” at the cup tie, while the story’s introduction said that “Hibs fans were last night warned not to invade the turf at their club’s Cup tie this weekend – and keep their cars off grass verges”.

Ms Waton claimed article inaccurately suggested that the Edinburgh-based club’s fans had been warned not to invade the pitch at the Cup tie, when no such warning had been issued by the police.

Hibernian fans on the pitch at last season’s Scottish FA Cup final

She also accused the Glasgow-based Record of bias in two other stories, which made reference to a pitch invasion at last season’s Scottish FA Cup final between Hibernian and Rangers.

In response, the Record said that it had not been its intention to state in the first article that Hibernian fans had been warned to stay off the “pitch”.

Prior to publication, the article said that fans had been warned not to invade the “hallowed turf at the club’s weekend cup tie – by parking on the grass verges”, which was intended to be a light-hearted reference to the Cup final pitch invasion, but that the pun was lost during the sub-editing process.

The Record offered to publish a correction beneath the article, but denied the coverage in the other two articles about which Ms Waton complained were significantly misleading.

IPSO accepted the Record’s explanation regarding the joke which had been misunderstood by the sub-editor, but found the sub-headline had given the significantly misleading impression that a specific warning over a pitch invasion had been issued and the Record should publish the correction to avoid a breach of Code.

The Committee noted the complainant’s concern that all of the articles demonstrated bias against Hibernian FC supporters, but stated newspapers are not obliged to ensure that coverage is “balanced”.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.

In August, IPSO rapped the Record for its coverage of the same Cup final after it was found to have published unverified information about supporters’ behaviour at the match from an anonymous source claiming to be a police officer.

The watchdog also recently ruled on another case involving the Record.

Derek Mitchell complained the paper breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) which reported he was granted a £30,000 divorce settlement by the same judge who spared him jail following an assault on his ex-wife 19 months earlier.

Mr Mitchell said the divorce settlement was agreed before the hearing started, was not debated in court by any party and had nothing to do with the judge.

The record accepted that the information, which was supplied by a member of court staff to its reporter, was inaccurate, but denied that there had been a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article because the journalist had no reason not to trust the information received from the member of court staff.

The article was amended to clarify the inaccuracy.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.