Jeremy Clarkson’s Meghan Markle Column Was Sexist, U.K. Media Regulator Rules; The Sun Forced to Print Ruling on Front Page (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International The U.K.’s media watchdog, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), has upheld two complaints lodged by women’s rights charities against Jeremy Clarkson’s December column in The Sun about Meghan Markle.

Variety can reveal that after a months-long process, IPSO found that the “Grand Tour” host’s column breached Clause 12 of the regulator’s Editors’ Code of Practice, which relates to discrimination.

The case marks the first time in its nine-year history that IPSO has upheld a complaint on the basis of sexism. As a result, The Sun has been instructed to publish a summary of the regulator’s findings in the spot where Clarkson’s column regularly appears in the print edition, and reference the decision on its front page and website homepage for 24 hours — something the tabloid hasn’t been forced to do since 2016, when its front-page “Queen Backs Brexit” splash was found to have breached press regulations. “This is the most significant sanction that we would impose for an individual complaint,” IPSO CEO Charlotte Dewar told Variety in an exclusive interview (see below). “It’s not about whether or not people are offended by something or whether they dislike it; it’s specifically about whether it has breached the Editors’ Code,” Dewar continued. “We wanted to be really, really clear about what specifically the complainants thought in the article had breached the code, and then — as a fair process requires — get the publication’s position on that.” The ruling reveals that the Sun fought IPSO’s decision and took the case to the Independent Complaints Reviewer, a third party that oversees the regulator.