Jermaine Jackson complained about a UK Sun article about allegations of child molestation against his brother, the late recording artist Michael Jackson.
The Sun‘s February article, “MJ Paedo Worry Michael Jackson’s bother Jermaine expressed secret fears over superstar’s sex abuse claims in 1993 interview,” reported that despite Jermaine Jackson’s defense of his brother, Jermaine Jackson gave an interview in 1993 saying he had doubts about his brother’s innocence.
Jackson denied giving the interview, saying he consistently had defended his brother against the allegations. The Sun, however, defended its story as reporting accurately on an article in the public domain, and provided the 1993 article as evidence. Regardless, Jackson denied he made the comments and called the 1993 article “dubious.”
Despite Jackson’s denials, IPSO ruled that the article accurately reported on the 1993 interview and contextualized that it was an old interview, and not his current position.
“By reporting these comments, the article did not contain the suggestion that this was a position which the complainant currently held; the article made clear that the complainant had expressed strong support of his brother in 1993, and more recently,” IPSO reported. “The newspaper had taken care to report the historic comments contained in the interview accurately, and no misleading impression was given of the content of the article published in 1993, such as would require correction.”
iMediaEthics has written to the Sun. We’ve also written to Jermaine Jackson’s representatives to ask if he is satisfied with the process and has complained about any other news outlets’ reporting on this matter.