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LONDON – Outspoken British tabloid columnist and TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been reprimanded by the country’s press authority for a controversial opinion column about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in which he described how he imagined her being stripped naked and publicly humiliated, before being mocked by the crowd.
The article by 63-year-old Clarkson from the TV show Top Gear was published in the Sun newspaper in December. It “contained a derogatory and derogatory reference to the Duchess’ gender,” in violation of an editors’ code of conduct, the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO) ruled on Friday.
As part of the punishment, the Sun was ordered to “publish a summary of the findings made against it – drafted by IPSO – on the same page where the column normally appears” and to flag the verdict on the front page and online. added it.
In the 2022 column, Clarkson wrote, “I hate her” about Meghan, 41. “I hate her on a cellular level.”
“At night I can’t sleep as I lay there grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she has to march naked through the streets of every city in Britain while the crowd chants ‘Shame!’ and throw clods of feces at them,” he continued.
His column about the multiracial American actress and activist, who is married to Prince Harry, drew widespread criticism, including Clarkson tweeted that it was an “awkward reference to a scene in Game of Thrones”.
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“This was a serious violation of the publishers’ code of conduct,” IPSO Chair Edward Faulks said in a statement. “We found the imagery used by the columnist in this article to be humiliating and demeaning towards the Duchess.”
He reiterated that the purpose of regulators is to protect the public and freedom of expression by maintaining high editorial standards.
The column received “more than 25,100 complaints from the public” according to IPSO – and another publication reported that it was the article the press organization had complained about the most since its inception in 2014. The formal complaint was filed by two women’s rights nonprofit groups — the Fawcett Society and the WILDE Foundation.
“We won,” the Fawcett Society said in a statement Saturday, calling the decision a historic victory against “media misogyny.”
In the public backlash at the time, both senior politicians and Clarkson’s own daughter criticized the comment. It also drew King Charles III’s wife, Camilla, into the furor after it was revealed she had invited Clarkson to a palace luncheon days before the column.
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The car enthusiast, who is a household name in the UK with over 8million social media followers, was described by the Sun at the time as a “polemicist known for using hyperbolic language”.
In a statement on Friday, the newspaper’s editor, NewsUK, said both Clarkson and The Sun apologized last year.
“The Sun accepts that with freedom of expression comes responsibility,” it said. “Half the readership of The Sun is women and we have a very long and proud history of helping women that has transformed the lives of many.”
Clarkson’s column also accused Meghan of turning her husband, Prince Harry, “into a warrior of awakening,” comparing her to a puppeteer who “uses her fingers to change his facial expression.”
Shortly after the release, Clarkson tweeted, “Oh dear. I preferred to get into it,” adding, “I’m appalled that I’ve caused so much damage and I’ll be more careful going forward.”
The newspaper group, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, also removed the online version of the article and issued an apology: “We at The Sun regret the publication of this article and we are sincerely sorry.”
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However, IPSO did not confirm elements of the complaint “that the article was inaccurate, harassed the Duchess of Sussex and contained discriminatory references to her on grounds of race”.
Although it said it “acknowledged the strength and sincerity” of the complaints, it “concluded that the elements of the cited article … provided no basis for finding that a derogatory reference to race was involved.”
Some online commentators have criticized the finding, saying it doesn’t go far enough and vocation for personal sanctions against Clarkson, who continues to write for the tabloid.
“IPSO took six months to make this weak decision. Not only was it sexist, it was misogynistic, racist and hateful.” tweeted a legislator. others have labeled It’s a “blatantly obvious conclusion” and some written down a “shameful lack of comment from the royal family on this appalling column”.
Harry and Meghan have not publicly commented on the verdict, but have long accused the British press of harassing them. This has had “a devastating impact on our mental health,” Harry told a London court last month, adding that the couple’s treatment of the press led in part to their decision to relocate to the United States in 2020.
In their Netflix documentary series, the couple accused some tabloids of inciting hatred and racism against them, and they claimed that palace press teams often briefed the media against the couple behind the scenes.
They have also been involved in a number of court cases in the UK involving press intrusion. Harry recently said in court that he feels “paranoid about the people around me” and that he’s “experienced hostility from the press since I was there.” born as He is committed to improving data protection standards in the media.
William Booth contributed to this report.
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