UK News

Former England footballer Paul Gascoigne has been fined £1,000 for making a joke about a black security guard at a public event.

Gascoigne joked abut Errol Rowe, a security guard, during his An Evening with Gazza show, by asking him: Can you smile please, because I can't see you?

Ordering Gascoigne to pay Rowe £1,000 in compensation, District Judge Graham Wilkinson lectured Gascoigne:

You sought to get a laugh from an audience of over 1,000 people because of the colour of Mr Rowe's skin. Mr Rowe was clearly humiliated on stage, as part of an act.

As a society it is important that we challenge racially aggravated behaviour in all its forms. It is the creeping 'low-level' racism that society still needs to challenge. A message needs to be sent that in the 21st century society that we live in, such action, such words will not be tolerated.

It is not acceptable to laugh words like this off as some form of joke.

Ordering Gascoigne to pay a £100 victim surcharge and a £500 contribution to the cost of the prosecution. Gascoigne has pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence

Offsite Comment: The state's war on amateur comedians

25th September 2016. See  article from spiked-online.com by Andrew Doyle, comedian

Gazza isn't the only one having his collar felt for telling a crap joke

Read the full  article from spiked-online.com

The Society of Editors have condemned a decision by Liverpool councillors to support a ban on retailers selling The Sun in the city, calling it a slide towards censorship .

At a meeting of the full council at Liverpool town hall, councillors backed a motion calling on retailers to stop selling the paper.  It came after the council heard from Ralph Hadley who called on council members to throw their weight behind his Total Eclipse of The Sun campaign . He said around 220 shops had also agreed to stop selling the paper.

According to the Echo, Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said he supported Total Eclipse of The Sun 110% and added the newspaper will never, ever, be forgiven .

Speaking to BBC News , Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said that although he recognised the strength of feeling towards the newspaper in the city, it should be a matter of personal choice whether vendors wish to stock the paper and the decision of individuals as to whether they wish to buy it. He said:

I think the issue is beginning to stretch towards censorship. No public organisation should be seeking to restrict a perfectly legitimate newspaper.

Strong feelings towards The Sun stem from its coverage following the Hillsborough stadium disaster on 15 April, 1989. The Sun angered Liverpool supporters when it claimed in a front page story after the disaster that fans of the club had behaved despicably. 23 years later following an independent report into the disaster, the paper apologised for getting it wrong with the headline The Real Truth .

Press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), has announced a review of the way its regulations should apply to global digital publishers. The review has been triggered by concerns that IPSO's original regulations may no longer be adequate to deal with some of the issues thrown up by new models of global publishing.

IPSO Chief Executive, Matt Tee said:

When the current regulations were drafted nearly four years ago, it was difficult to imagine the developments that would take place in digital publishing, with some publishers having numerous editorial bureaux across the world focused on different audiences in different time zones. This is already an issue for some IPSO members and is bound to affect others in future. It may also be a disincentive to other global digital publishers joining IPSO. We want a solution that enables IPSO to be an effective regulator for relevant consumers and provides a definition that is intuitive and workable for publishers.

The review will be carried out by IPSO's Board as expeditiously as possible. The terms of reference for the review will be to:

Consider how best to define the content, published online by a global publisher, that should fall under IPSO's remit consult with global digital publishers on a proposed definition examine the experience of overseas press regulators as well as regulators in other areas of communication, such as broadcast or video on demand seek advice on how a revised definition would best be implemented.

Until the review is concluded, IPSO may exercise its discretion not to consider new complaints which relate specifically to articles and other content about events in overseas jurisdictions, and which are not primarily targeted at a UK audience.

IPSO will be contacting relevant parties in the next week inviting them to make submissions to the review, however submissions are welcome from any person or group. Submissions should be sent to digitalreview@ipso.co.uk. The closing date for submissions is midday on Friday 19 August 2016.

Offsite Article: Censors from every country claim dominium of the world

26th July 2016. See  article from theguardian.com

The Guardian asks:

Can Ipso apply in countries with strict press regulation -- and with none.