Zoo escapes PCC censure

Jennifer Whitehead, Media Week, Thursday, 20 July 2006, 1:30pm,

Zoo magazine has escaped censure from the Press Complaints Commission after a father complained about the publication of a photo of his daughter.

The Emap men's magazine published a photo of the 10-year-old girl making an offensive gesture at Old Trafford following Chelsea's defeat by Liverpool in the FA Cup. At the same time her father was shown apparently giving a Nazi salute.

The photo had been published in other newspapers with the girl's face pixelated, but Zoo had run it without obscuring her, and the father, Paschal Quigley, argued that the magazine had ridiculed his daughter and was in breach of clause six of the PCC code, regarding children.

The PCC rejected Quigley's complaint on the grounds that in the context of a significant sporting occasion, the complainant must have been aware of the possibility of being photographed by the press or even appearing on television.

It also pointed out that it is not the case that any picture of a child taken and published without the consent of the parent will always breach the code.

This article was first published on Media Week