The father of a boy who made an alleged “ISIS salute” at his school’s sports day has had his complaint against a regional daily rejected by the press watchdog.

The unnamed man claimed the Liverpool Echo had risked the welfare of his son after publishing a pixellated photograph of him making the gesture.

The accompanying story reported that the named school’s headteacher had apologised to parents after the photo appeared in its weekly newsletter.

However the complainant said his 14-year-old son had experienced “abuse” as a result of the photo’s publication.

The photo as it appeared in the Echo

The man complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation under Clause 1 (Accuracy), Clause 2 (Privacy), Clause 3 (Harassment) and Clause 6 (Children) of the Editors’ Code of Practice.

He argued that the Echo had failed to take care over the accuracy of the claim that the gesture was an “Isis salute” because it is also recognised as a symbol of peace in the Middle East.

However the Echo said that the photo was used to illustrate a legitimate news story, which was the subject of pre-existing controversy, and did not accept that there had been an intrusion into the complainant’s son’s privacy or his time at school.

The newsletter had already been distributed, unpixellated, in a newsletter published by the school online and circulated to the parents of the 1,550 students at the school, and that no new information about the boy had been placed into the public domain.

In its ruling, the complaints committee said the photograph published by the newspaper had been heavily pixellated, and that any intrusion into the boy’s time at school as a result of the publication had been limited.

“Publication of the pixelated photograph did not materially affect his welfare in circumstances where the complainant’s son had not been pictured making the gesture and the unpixelated photograph had been previously disclosed to a wide audience,” it said.

“In any event, there was a strong public interest in reporting the fact that the school had previously published the photograph, and its decision to withdraw it and to publish a statement apologising for any offence which had been caused.

“While the committee noted the complainant’s position that the gesture being made was open to interpretation, it did not conclude that there had been a failure to take care over the accuracy of the article.”

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