By Lucy Caulkett-
Press regulator IPSO has upheld a complaint against Press Gazette after ruling that a report failed to make clear that a former councillor strongly denied an allegation that he had admitted having sex with a 14-year-old.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation found that Press Gazette breached Clause 1 of the Editors’ Code of Practice on accuracy after publishing a report containing the allegation against former North Northamptonshire councillor Matthew Binley(pictured) without making sufficiently clear that he disputed having made the alleged admission.
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The ruling centres on a Press Gazette article published in August last year concerning journalist Sarah Ward, editor of the Substack-based local news outlet NN Journal. Ward had been given a harassment warning by Northamptonshire Police after making repeated requests to Binley for a right of reply to articles concerning historic allegations against him.
Binley complained to IPSO about a sub-headline in the Press Gazette article which stated that he had “admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old when in his twenties”.
He told the regulator that the statement was inaccurate because, at the council meeting in question, he had not admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old. His position, he said, was that he had merely acknowledged that police had investigated a historic allegation against him dating back to 2009.
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The allegation that Binley had made such an admission was based on information provided by Ward, who said that several councillors had told her they would be prepared to give evidence in court that Binley had made the statement during a council meeting.
Press Gazette subsequently took additional steps to investigate the claim after Binley complained to IPSO. The publication spoke directly to two local councillors, who confirmed that the admission had been made. It was also provided with an extract from the minutes of a local Conservative Association meeting which stated that Binley had admitted to the group that, while serving as a police officer, he had sex with a 14-year-old.
Despite that additional material, IPSO said it was not in a position to establish precisely what Binley said at the council meeting or determine the truth of the underlying allegations.
The regulator stressed that publications are entitled to report allegations, including serious allegations, but said they must take sufficient care to ensure that those allegations are accurately presented.
In this case, IPSO found that the wider Press Gazette article made clear that allegations concerning Binley were disputed. The article included a previous statement from him saying that the matter related to historic allegations from 16 years earlier, which he said had been fully investigated by the appropriate authorities and had resulted in no further action.
However, the regulator concluded that the specific claim that Binley had admitted to the sexual offence at a council meeting was presented differently. According to IPSO, the article did not make clear that Binley strongly denied making such an admission. Nor had Press Gazette put that specific allegation directly to him before publication.
The regulator noted that Press Gazette had contacted Binley five days before publication to inform him that it was preparing a report concerning Ward and her alleged harassment through repeated requests for comment. However, that communication did not specifically mention the allegation that Binley had admitted to a sexual offence during a council meeting.
Binley also said he never received the email because it had been sent to his former council address, despite the fact that he was no longer a councillor. Press Gazette told IPSO that it had not received an automated response indicating that the address was no longer in use and had not made further attempts to contact him in connection with the specific allegation.
IPSO nevertheless concluded that the publication had failed to take sufficient care to avoid publishing information that was inaccurate, misleading or distorted.
The regulator said the nature of the allegation made the omission particularly serious. It involved an alleged admission to having had sex with a 14-year-old while in his twenties and while serving as a police officer.
IPSO said that by failing to include Binley’s rebuttak the article created the misleading impression that he accepted he had made the admission during the council meeting.
“The claim was not presented as an unproven allegation,” the regulator concluded, and the failure to make Binley’s denial clear meant that the article contained significantly misleading information. IPSO also found a second breach after Press Gazette failed to offer to publish Binley’s response to the allegation once he complained.
The publication had already removed the disputed allegation from the article following the IPSO complaint. The regulator subsequently required a correction to be published under the original headline because the disputed claim had appeared prominently in the sub-headline.
The correction now published by Press Gazette acknowledges that the original article reported that Binley had admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old when in his twenties but had failed to make clear that he disputed the claim.
It states that Binley says he made no such admission during the council meeting and explains that the correction was published following an upheld IPSO ruling. The case also involved complaints concerning privacy and harassment, but IPSO did not uphold those aspects of Binley’s complaint.
Binley argued that the article intruded into his private life because he was no longer a councillor. IPSO rejected that complaint, pointing to information already available in the public domain concerning the historic allegations and the fact that Binley had complained to police about Ward’s approaches.
He also argued that Press Gazette had effectively “named and shamed” him for reporting Ward to the police. Again, IPSO did not uphold the complaint, finding that a single article did not amount to a pattern of conduct that could reasonably be regarded as harassment or intimidation.
The ruling therefore draws a significant distinction between the right of a publication to report an allegation and the obligation to make clear when the person accused disputes it.
IPSO explicitly said that reporting an allegation that Binley had admitted having sex with a teenager was not, by itself, a breach of the Editors’ Code. The breach arose because the article failed to accurately convey his position on whether the alleged admission had actually taken place.
The decision is a reminder of the heightened accuracy requirements surrounding allegations of serious criminal or sexual misconduct. Even where a publication has obtained corroborating accounts from other sources, the regulator’s ruling makes clear that the subject’s position must be fairly and accurately represented, particularly where the distinction between an allegation and an established fact could materially affect how readers understand the report.
For Press Gazette, the ruling has resulted in both the removal of the disputed material and the publication of a formal correction.
For Binley, the decision confirms that while IPSO could not determine what was said at the council meeting or establish the truth of the underlying allegations, the publication should have made his denial of the alleged admission explicit.
The case ultimately turns on a fundamental principle of responsible journalism:a publication may report allegations in the public interest, but it must not present a disputed allegation in a way that gives readers the impression that it has been admitted or established when the person concerned says otherwise.
That distinction was central to IPSO’s decision and serves as a significant reminder to news organisations of the importance of precision when reporting serious allegations that can have profound consequences for the reputation of the people involved.
Sarah Ward was contacted for comment
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