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Media
Gately’s partner complains to PCC
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 18 December 2009
Stephen Gately’s civil partner, Andrew Cowles has issued a formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, through his solicitors, about that article written by Jan Moir and published in The Daily Mail following the Boyzone star’s death in October, and the day before his funeral.
As previously reported, the article noted that there were some unanswered questions about Gately’s sudden demise, before basically suggested that aspects of the Boyzoner’s lifestyle led to his death, and that that lifestyle was basically a result of his homosexuality. This despite her previously listing a number of heterosexual celebrities who, she claimed, also lived “dangerous lifestyles” in the spotlight – some of whom have, or have had, drug dependencies on a whole different level to the dope smoking it was revealed Gately was partial to.
Many concluded Moir was really participating in some casual homophobia, a theory strengthened by the Mail hack’s conclusion that Gately’s death “strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships”. As if civil partnerships had somehow been positioned to the Mail-reading faithful as being fairy tale unions in a society where most straight marriages ultimately fail. The conclusion seemed to be that because a man in a civil partnership had died, the whole concept should be abolished.
On the Friday the piece appeared on the Mail’s website, the PCC received 1000 complaints, thanks largely to people expressing outrage on Twitter, and by the following Monday afternoon the complaint count had reached 22,000, meaning the article generated more complaints in one weekend than the whole body had received in the previous five years.
Moir responded to all the outrage about her piece, saying that the article – or at least its homophobic undertones – were simply misunderstood, and accused pressure groups of orchestrating a campaign against her which, she said, explains the sheer scale of the formal complaints made about the piece. She failed to point out the reason she had been misunderstood was that she is an atrocious writer.
Boyzone’s record label, Universal/Polydor, were among the complainants, but the PCC only usually steps in when an individual personally connected to an offending article complains. Although it did previously ask the Mail to respond regarding the piece, that key complaint was not submitted until now.
Cowles cited inaccuracy, intrusion into grief and discrimination as reasons for the complaint, meaning the Press Complaints Commission will now formally investigate whether or not Moir’s column breached its code of practice.
