Miliband attacks Mail treatment
Labour leader says 'many other
families who are not in public life have had similar experiences'
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Ed Miliband: Mail treatment of family not an isolated incident
Labour leader airs concern for families not in public life who are targeted by newspapers in same way as his late father and uncle - theguardian.com,
Ed Miliband (left) and
Mail on Sunday editor, Geordie Greig, who apologised 'unreservedly'
after reporter gatecrashed uncle's memorial service. Photograph: PA
Ed Miliband has said the treatment of his family by the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday is not an isolated incident and more "lines should be drawn" in the conduct of the press.
The Labour leader said he did not want to pick a fight with the newspaper group, after the Daily Mail ran a story claiming his late father hated Britain.
However, he said he was moved to speak out as a son, not a politician, after the newspaper "crossed a line" in attacking Ralph Miliband, a prominent academic who died in 1994.
The row comes as politicians prepare to make decisions on the future of press regulation next week following the publication of the Leveson report on the culture and practices of the press.
Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Mail newspapers, has apologised after his Mail on Sunday title sent a reporter to a memorial service for Miliband's uncle. However, the media group has refused to back down over its article about Miliband's father.
Speaking on BBC Radio Five on Friday morning, the Labour leader repeated his call for Rothermere to "take a long, hard look" at the culture and practices of the newspaper group.
"I think these are important steps and I've had my say in this," he said. "The thing I would say is that what I would hope that Lord Rothermere would do, and that's what I said in my letter to him, is to look at the wider culture and practices of the Mail and the Mail on Sunday because I don't think this is just an isolated incident that has just happened to my family and, frankly, I'm interested in the many other families who are not in public life who have had similar experiences."
Miliband said he has always had a professional relationship with Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, and did not believe the article had any antisemitic implications.
The newspaper's city editor, Alex Brummer, said on Friday that he had been asked by Dacre to rebut the suggestion that the article had any implications of antisemitism. Asked why Dacre had not yet appeared in public to explain the piece, Brummer said the newspaper boss preferred to speak through his editorials.
Miliband said the attack on his father went too far and he called for a wider investigation.
"This is not a personal thing about [Dacre]," he said, "It's about the standards of his newspaper and what the British people have a right to expect of newspapers in this country – and indeed of the Daily Mail – and where lines should be drawn.
"Lines should be drawn in political debate, lines should be drawn in the conduct of the press, and I think the owners of the Mail have a responsibility to have a long, hard look at that because when the owner says, 'Well, you know, I don't think this behaviour reflects our culture and practices', I hope he will ponder that and have a think about that."
Asked why he was moved to speak out, Miliband said he had a personal reaction to the article that appeared in the Daily Mail last Saturday.
"It's a very simple thing," he said. "It's about defending the honour of my dad, because the Daily Mail said that my father hated the country, and my father served in the Royal Navy, he loved Britain, he fought for our country and I'm afraid there's a moment when a paper crosses a line and when I felt as a son that I had to speak out on behalf of my dad.
"My dad's not alive any more, he can't speak out, but I can and that's why I did what I did and I think it was the right thing to do and, as I say, I was speaking as a son, not as a politician."
Rothermere sent a private letter to Miliband on Thursday night in which he expressed regret at the intrusion at the memorial service – but he rejected claims that the incident reflected a wider problem with the culture and ethics at the two papers.
Earlier, the Mail on Sunday's editor, Geordie Greig, who had been seen as a candidate to one day succeed Dacre on the Daily Mail, had issued his own unreserved apology for the intrusion. Two journalists, Jo Knowsley and assistant editor Amy Iggulden, are understood to have been suspended.
Lord Glasman, a senior Labour figure and ally of Miliband, compared the attack on Ralph Miliband to the McCarthyite hunting of communists in the US in the 1960s. Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, he praised the Labour leader's "courageous" decision to take a stand against the Mail, adding that the row "has got to go on for a while".
The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, defended Miliband on Thursday. "It seems to me that if anyone excels in denigrating and often vilifying a lot about modern Britain, it's the Daily Mail," Clegg said. "They don't like working mothers, they don't like the BBC, they don't like members of the royal family, they don't like teachers, they don't like the English football team – the list goes on."
Miliband has declined to refer the matter to the Press Complaints Commission. Labour has described it as a toothless tiger, not least because Dacre was chairman of the editor's code of practice committee, which sets standards for journalists.
copy http://www.theguardian.com/
The Labour leader said he did not want to pick a fight with the newspaper group, after the Daily Mail ran a story claiming his late father hated Britain.
However, he said he was moved to speak out as a son, not a politician, after the newspaper "crossed a line" in attacking Ralph Miliband, a prominent academic who died in 1994.
The row comes as politicians prepare to make decisions on the future of press regulation next week following the publication of the Leveson report on the culture and practices of the press.
Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Mail newspapers, has apologised after his Mail on Sunday title sent a reporter to a memorial service for Miliband's uncle. However, the media group has refused to back down over its article about Miliband's father.
Speaking on BBC Radio Five on Friday morning, the Labour leader repeated his call for Rothermere to "take a long, hard look" at the culture and practices of the newspaper group.
"I think these are important steps and I've had my say in this," he said. "The thing I would say is that what I would hope that Lord Rothermere would do, and that's what I said in my letter to him, is to look at the wider culture and practices of the Mail and the Mail on Sunday because I don't think this is just an isolated incident that has just happened to my family and, frankly, I'm interested in the many other families who are not in public life who have had similar experiences."
Miliband said he has always had a professional relationship with Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, and did not believe the article had any antisemitic implications.
The newspaper's city editor, Alex Brummer, said on Friday that he had been asked by Dacre to rebut the suggestion that the article had any implications of antisemitism. Asked why Dacre had not yet appeared in public to explain the piece, Brummer said the newspaper boss preferred to speak through his editorials.
Miliband said the attack on his father went too far and he called for a wider investigation.
"This is not a personal thing about [Dacre]," he said, "It's about the standards of his newspaper and what the British people have a right to expect of newspapers in this country – and indeed of the Daily Mail – and where lines should be drawn.
"Lines should be drawn in political debate, lines should be drawn in the conduct of the press, and I think the owners of the Mail have a responsibility to have a long, hard look at that because when the owner says, 'Well, you know, I don't think this behaviour reflects our culture and practices', I hope he will ponder that and have a think about that."
Asked why he was moved to speak out, Miliband said he had a personal reaction to the article that appeared in the Daily Mail last Saturday.
"It's a very simple thing," he said. "It's about defending the honour of my dad, because the Daily Mail said that my father hated the country, and my father served in the Royal Navy, he loved Britain, he fought for our country and I'm afraid there's a moment when a paper crosses a line and when I felt as a son that I had to speak out on behalf of my dad.
"My dad's not alive any more, he can't speak out, but I can and that's why I did what I did and I think it was the right thing to do and, as I say, I was speaking as a son, not as a politician."
Rothermere sent a private letter to Miliband on Thursday night in which he expressed regret at the intrusion at the memorial service – but he rejected claims that the incident reflected a wider problem with the culture and ethics at the two papers.
Earlier, the Mail on Sunday's editor, Geordie Greig, who had been seen as a candidate to one day succeed Dacre on the Daily Mail, had issued his own unreserved apology for the intrusion. Two journalists, Jo Knowsley and assistant editor Amy Iggulden, are understood to have been suspended.
Lord Glasman, a senior Labour figure and ally of Miliband, compared the attack on Ralph Miliband to the McCarthyite hunting of communists in the US in the 1960s. Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, he praised the Labour leader's "courageous" decision to take a stand against the Mail, adding that the row "has got to go on for a while".
The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, defended Miliband on Thursday. "It seems to me that if anyone excels in denigrating and often vilifying a lot about modern Britain, it's the Daily Mail," Clegg said. "They don't like working mothers, they don't like the BBC, they don't like members of the royal family, they don't like teachers, they don't like the English football team – the list goes on."
Miliband has declined to refer the matter to the Press Complaints Commission. Labour has described it as a toothless tiger, not least because Dacre was chairman of the editor's code of practice committee, which sets standards for journalists.
copy http://www.theguardian.com/
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