SCOTTISH journalist and broadcaster Duncan Campbell has broken new ground by winning an apology from the Broadcasting Complaints Commission over a Channel 4 documentary on the so-called Fettesgate scandal.
The Scotsman newspaper will be asked to carry the apology tomorrow over its role in publishing some of the attack on the award-winning reporter.
A break-in at Lothian Police headquarters was a legitimate ground for journalistic investigation.
In doing so Mr Campbell reported the activities of criminal Derek Donaldson and as a consequence was seriously beaten up. Donaldson went to jail for the attack.
Nevertheless, Donaldson appealed to the BCC that Mr Campbell had been unfair to him and had infringed his privacy. The BCC upheld that complaint.
Campaigning journalist Campbell wrote an article in Broadcast magazine defending his role. Incensed, the BCC's secretary, Mr Robert Hargreaves, wrote an article in reply and some of his remarks were published in the Scotsman.
The comments made by Mr Hargreaves were at the heart of a libel action that has now been settled out of court.
In an agreed statement between the parties, it is made clear that Mr Campbell was entitled to attack criticisms of him by the BCC.
In addition, the BCC will admit that Mr Hargreaves's article in reply wrongly suggested that Mr Campbell was connected to criminals interviewed in the programme.
The apology will go on to say: ``The commission also accept that it was wrong for the article to have suggested that Mr Campbell attempted to eavesdrop on Mr Donaldson's telephone conversations.
``The article repeated critical comments about Mr Campbell's alleged conduct towards him and his mother going beyond what could be supported by the commission's findings in their adjudication.''
The BCC will say in its apology that the article was not intended to be an attack on Mr Campbell's sincerity or his integrity as a campaigning journalist and that the commission regretted a contrary impression that might have been given.
Mr Campbell said last night: ``The most astonishing thing is it got to this stage. It took a court case to get BCC to admit that criminal violence was wrong.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article