INTRODUCTION: [Which you have to read (or at least scroll through) before you can see what I actually wrote.] APRIL FOOL: Q.The Gazette for 1 April 1999 had two potential April Fool stories on the front cover.  Which is the real April Fool? 1. A story saying that the Gazette had been given an award for being (jointly with the Keighley News) North East weekly newspaper of the year.  The article quoted Gazette editor Bob Bingham as saying that the readers must be glad to know they're getting the best. 2. A story saying that travellers were planning to camp in Alnwick market Square for the Millenium and drown out the Town Council's own entertainment.  The article quoted Daisy O'Foprall [anag: y'sad april fool] saying that it was going to be "a massive buzzing night out".  Which is exactly how travellers talk. Not. A.Who knows?

 

The Northumberland Gazette is the local paper for Alnwick.  In 1998 I wrote a review of the Gazette  saying that I thought that the paper wasn't all that good.  Shortly afterwards I was surprised to receive an email purporting to come from the Gazette's Editor, Bob Bingham (whose name should be pronounced "Bin-jum" if the usual Northumbrian rules are followed), claiming that the page could be defamatory and demanding that it be taken down. The page wasn't complimentary but I don't think it was defamatory either, although that of course only that can only be decided by a court.  I did a bit of digging around and here's an example of the change in the Gazette's attitude to criticism since the 1950s:

A Gazette editorial in the 1950s responding to criticism: "[Criticism] is not a bad thing; it at least shows an interest in the paper by the people for whom it is produced and by those whose activities it seeks to report. It is also good for the staff of a newspaper to know that the public watches its efforts so keenly."

The response to my original Gazette page in June 1998: The Gazette's editor, Bob Bingham, responded by sending (three times!) a without prejudice email claiming that they had "taken advice" (note that he was not specific about what kind of advice he had taken).  He claimed that the site breaches the Gazette's copyright by using headlines without permission (that's a non-sequitur because use of headlines without permission is not automatically a breach of copyright).  It also said, without going into any specifics, that the page contained statements which could be construed as libellous.

 

It is quite unusual to see a newspaper complaining about being defamed.  One is tempted to say that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.  In March 1999, the Gazette printed a fulsome apology to Safeways on its front page over a mistake it had made (which presumably was arguably defamatory). Anyway, at the time, I did remove the page, but now, because people seem to be interested, and because it serves as an interesting example of the press trying to suppress criticism of themselves, I have put it back up HERE. BUT: I should make it clear that the page you can see today has been altered a little, given the Gazette's attitude to receiving public criticism.   Click here to see the Gazette page

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