Leveson on the 'tendency to sexualise and demean women'

One phrase that unexpectedly appears in the Leveson Report is (p.664):

massive pervy eyeful

It is a quote from a 'story' published by the Daily Star on 15 November 2011:

The 'story' says:

Sam's a bit of a ski bum

We assume you're not even reading this because you're still getting a massive pervy eyeful of that pert ass going up a fake ski slope.

But if you have managed to tear your bum-filled eyeballs away, you will realise the owner of those tight buns is TOWIE babe Sam Faiers, 20.

She showed off her impressive, er, snow plough on a family day out at Brentwood Ski Centre in her Essex hood.

This was submitted to Leveson by the organisation OBJECT as one example (among many) of the objectification of women in the media.

Referring to the Star, Sun and Sport, Lord Justice Leveson pointed out (p.664):

all three titles contained what can only be described as objectifying material. All three included numerous articles with no other purpose except to show an image of a scantily clad or topless woman...

All three titles included articles with no purpose other than to attach a photograph of, and describe in derogatory language, a woman’s breasts or bottom...

All three contained large scale advertisements for pornography and/or escort services. And all three included articles which appeared to eroticise violence against women.

He concluded (p.664):

The evidence as a whole suggested that there is force in the trenchant views expressed by the groups and organisations who testified to the Inquiry that the Page 3 tabloid press often failed to show consistent respect for the dignity and equality of women generally, and that there was a tendency to sexualise and demean women. That failure is particularly clear in the pages of the Sport, which is, in my view, hardly distinguishable from the admittedly ‘softer’ end of top-shelf pornography. But it exists to a lesser degree in the Daily Star and The Sun. For The Sun, at least, it is a failure of consistency, rather than a general failure to show respect for women. The Sun has campaigned admirably against domestic violence, rape, and size zero models.[373] But it is clear that those campaigns have, perhaps uncomfortably, sat alongside demeaning and sexualising representations of women.

Round-up of apologies and retractions

At the end of last year, the News of the World apologised and paid damages to Met Police Commander Ali Dizaei:

One of Scotland Yard's most senior minority officers has accepted a substantial payout and an apology from the News of the World for false allegations arising from an investigation by the "fake sheikh" Mazher Mahmood.

The paper has backed down in the face of legal action from Commander Ali Dizaei after Mahmood, its star investigative reporter, claimed the officer "employed an illegal immigrant as his right-hand man and took him to the heart of the British establishment".

The subject of the story, Ace Bakhtyari, of Iran, was subsequently jailed for having a fake passport and deported. Dizaei, one of the Met's most high-profile officers, complained that the story implied he knew that Bakhtyari was an illegal immigrant but nevertheless employed him.

MediaGuardian has the full story, including details of a previous payout to Dizaei from the Evening Standard.

Dizaei took the legal option as he probably knew the PCC wouldn't be much help, but here's some recent PCC-brokered resolutions.

The Express apologised to Reverend Archie Coates:

Our article of October 17 headed "Priest brands resort ‘most godless in UK' incorrectly attributed the quote to Rev. Archie Coates, vicar of St Peter's, Brighton. In fact he said that it had been dubbed that by others. The report that he had been reprimanded for the comment was therefore unfounded. We apologise to Rev. Coates for any embarrassment to Rev. Coates for any embarrassment our article may have caused him.

The Daily Star have apologised to Jordan for one of the many front page lies they've printed about her. It's the one about her being 'pregnant':

On 25th August 2009, we published a story 'Jordan's New Baby Shock', stating that a source had claimed that three positive pregnancy tests had been found in Katie Price's home. We also pointed out that Jordan's spokesperson denied she was pregnant. We are happy to set the record straight and clarify that Katie Price was not pregnant at the time our source claimed the tests were found and apologise to Katie Price.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail 'reported that a teenager was successful in her appeal to wear traditional Muslim dress to school when this was not the case':

The complaint was resolved when the newspaper informed the complainant, via the PCC, that it had already addressed a direct complaint from the school involved. The newspaper had: written to the school to apologise for the error; corrected the online story; annotated its cuttings; and published a prominent correction.

Also from the Mail, an admission (of sorts) that the list of panellist profiles provided to the Question Time audience when Nick Griffin was on the programme was doctored. It just wasn't their fault:

The complaint was resolved when the newspaper - which said that the error was not a deliberate attempt to mislead but rather the result of a simple misunderstanding, something which the BBC had accepted - amended the online article to reflect the situation accurately in addition to marking its cuttings for future reference.

Finally, Coronation Street actress Helen Flanagan complained about a mocked-up photo of her head on a topless model's body in the Daily Sport. The Sport apologised and said they wouldn't do it again.

Yes, they really needed to be told about that...