By Gabriel Princewill-
The Sun Newspaper owes Prince Phillip and the nation an apology after their news blunder that Prince Phillip was dead.
On Wednesday night, speculation was high after the Queen summoned all her aides from across the country to Buckingham Palace for an announcement. The call was very unusual, with concern running high amongst most members of the press and even the public.
The eventual revelation of the news that the announcement that put us all in suspense related to Prince Phillip stepping down from his public duties must have been a relief to concerned parties in the UK and world wide. Yet, any such relief would have been tinged by the embarrassing blunder made by the Sun Newspaper.
The most widely read newspaper in Britain, their appeal stretches to the common man. They wield much influence on opinion, and are listened to. The maintenance of high standards is expected of them. The Sun Newspaper have traditionally disclosed many exclusive stories world wide, and have campaigned for many just causes, including offering cash rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of unsolved murders.
In this case, the Sun Newspaper fell fatally foul of high journalistic ethics. Their rush to publicize what at best could have been a surmise is deplorable. They owe Prince Phillip and the country an apology. How they could publish a story claiming Prince Phillip was dead without ascertaining the truth of the story is baffling.
CONNECTIONS
With connections in high places all over the globe, Rupert Murdoch’s publication would have been expected to affirm the accuracy of the news they were disseminating before going public with it.
CREDIBILITY
The erroneous information is a dent on their credibility as far as the highest level of integrity is concerned. Their unwitting compromise of their credibility raises important questions that must be internally tackled. This intuitive conclusion does not amount to saying the news published in their paper is the Sun is always inaccurate, but it makes one wonder if there are any other blunders they commit without detection.
CRITICISED
Only last year, the paper was criticised by Ipso for a headline about the Queens views on Brexit which did not support the text in the article. The article boarded on insinuating that her Majesty had breached her constitutional duties, albeit, the setting of the stated leaked conversation with the Queen was private.
The eye of media.com contacted the Sun Online for a comment yesterday (Thursday). We were told to expect a call back the same day, but were told today : ” If we were going to comment, we would have done so yesterday. We have no comment to make “. Indeed, what can they say? They have nothing to say , but we do. Apologise, and please, next time, take more care. You hold a lot of influence and errors like this should never happen again.