Kent & Sussex Courier Editor apologises for Online Photo on Sale

"The paper was the result of an amalgamation of a number of Kent and East Sussex local newspapers, and hence has always been published in at least two editions, one of which covered the western parts of Kent while the other covered the eastern part of East Sussex.

After its purchase by Northcliffe Newspapers, part of the Daily Mail and General Trust newsgroup, its publishing company was renamed Courier Newspapers. After the 1998 acquisition of Kent & Sussex Radio, and the 2007 acquisition of the Kent regional assets of the Mirror Group, it was renamed the Courier Media Group, part of Northcliffe Media."

"Ms Elaine Johnson of Southborough complained that an article about underage drinking had been illustrated with a picture of her fifteen-year old son and his friends, which had been published without permission.

While her son's face had been pixellated in the print version of the newspaper, it had not been in an online version of the photograph, which was for sale. In any case, he was recognisable by his clothes. The complainant considered that the positioning of the photograph implied inaccurately that her son had been drinking, which he had not.

The editor apologised that the photograph had been available for sale on line, and indicated that he had tightened the newspaper's procedures to ensure that such a situation did not arise again. While he did not accept that the use of the photograph breached the Code, the editor offered to publish the following clarification:

"Our report on August 14th about underage drinking in Tunbridge Wells (Underage drinking: worst town problem) was accompanied by a photograph of young people gathered at Wellington Rocks.

It was not suggested that those pictured were drinking alcohol but we have been asked to make clear that they were not in fact engaged in any underage drinking. We are happy to make the position clear."