A city daily has been censured by the press watchdog after publishing a reader’s letter claiming most of the world’s conflicts were caused by Muslims.

The letter in Sheffield faily The Star prompted more than 110 complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation.

The paper subsequently accepted that the letter inaccurate and offensive, and that publishing it had been a “grave error.”

It also published an apology and wrote individually to each of the readers who had complained to it directly, but IPSO nevertheless upheld the complaints on the grounds of inaccuracy.

The letter appeared on 12 June on the ‘Your Views’ page which consists of letters submitted by readers.

It stated that students campaigning for Palestinians were “brainwashed” and that “unfortunately whichever way you look at this the majority in the world are conflicts caused by Muslims. This is not racism it is absolute fact”.

The letter was signed off with the reader’s name and the first part of their postcode.

The complainants said that the letter was inaccurate in breach of Clause 1 of the Editor’s Code, which covers accuracy, arguing that not only was it offensive and Islamophobic, it also inaccurately stated as an “absolute fact” that the majority of conflicts in the world were caused by Muslims.

The Star accepted that the letter was inaccurate and offensive, and said that publishing it was a grave error.

It said that, whilst all letters are reviewed and fact – checked by experienced and qualified staff members, on this instance these checks failed in what it described as “a regrettable lapse of standards.”

In the next issue, the newspaper published an apology, along with several other readers’ letters responding to the letter under complaint.

The apology was highlighted with a red border and stated: “We would like to sincerely apologise for a letter about student campaigns which appeared in The Star yesterday. We fully accept that the publication of the letter was a serious misjudgement and we are deeply sorry.”

The Star addded that, in addition to the published letters and apology, it had written to each individual who had complained to the publication directly in order to apologise, where possible on the same day it received their complaints.

It also said that the editor and print team responsible for the inclusion of the letter had been spoken to at length about the matter.

In its ruling, the Code Committee said that whilst the letter itself was clearly distinguished as such rather than as a news article, it had stated that it was an “absolute fact” that the majority of conflicts in the world are caused by Muslims.

The letter contained no basis for the claim that the majority of conflicts were “caused by Muslims” and the publication had not taken any steps to verify or challenge this information – for instance, by setting out the factual position elsewhere, or publishing a letter on the same day disputing this claim.

This amounted to a failure to take care not to publish inaccurate information and a breach of Clause 1(i).

The Committee considered that the letter therefore required a correction under Clause 1(ii), but because the newspaper had published the apology and response letters in the next available edition, there was no breach of this clause and no further action was required.

The complaint was upheld, and the ruling can be read in full here. https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings/04272-24/