The UK Daily Mail published five corrections on five separate stories after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange complained to the UK Press Complaints Commission.
The articles, published between July 2011 and November 2011, all have published corrections now. We asked the PCC’s Catherine Speller if the corrections were printed online or in print. She told us by e-mail: “The first article was corrected in print and online. With regards to the other four cases, the original articles were published online only, so the corrections here were published online.”
Some of the claims corrected included that :
- Assange “hacked into the security services and published information which got people killed” (The correction reads: “WikiLeaks does not itself ‘hack'” and that “no such deaths have to date been reported.” (See this correction here)
- Assange faces “sexual assault charges” in Sweden — when there are only allegations – not charges – against Assange. Further, another correction clarifies that there aren’t “two allegations of rape” as reported, but “one allegation” of rape and one of “sexual molestation.”
See the full report on the PCC’s website here.
According to the Associated Press, Assange has a list of “75 official complaints” about reporting on “his long-running extradition battle.” The AP noted that Assange “itemized the complaints in a submission to” the UK Leveson Inquiry into press standards and practices.
We wrote in March about the UK Observer’s correction of its review of Julian Assange’s “unauthorised autobiography.” Assange complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the review and the newspaper published a Feb. 12 correction that noted Assange didn’t “criticise author Andrew O’Hagan’s writing.”
We wrote in January when the PCC rejected Assange’s complaint over the New Statesman’s review of the autobiography.