Stephen Gately's Death

Stephen Gately, best known for being in the boyband Boyzone, died of natural causes in October this year. Jan Moir of The Daily Mail wrote an article entitled 'A strange, lonely and troubling death...' on 16th November, a day before the singer's funeral.

The article was questioning how the singer has actually died, and implied that the singer and his partner had invited a Bulgarian student back to their apartment. She wrote:
'Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one. Let us be absolutely clear about this. All that has been established so far is that Stephen Gately was not murdered.

And I think if we are going to be honest, we would have to admit that the circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy'

(Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death--.html#ixzz0a0Hc8WNa)

The PPC (Press Complaints Commision) received in total 25,000 complaints about the article, 20,000 off which were made in 48 hours. People claimed the article was hateful and homophobic.

There is a Facebook group called 'The Daily Mail should retract Jan Moir's hateful, homophobic article'. Although the article was printed on the 16th November, still a month on people feel offended that the article was ever published.

Stephen Gately's civil partner Andrew Cowles has himself complanined to the PCC, it was reported yesterday. Andrew claims the article breached guidelines of accuracy and discrimination.

Audiences were able to comment on the article as they are now able to participate and respond to what they say and read, thanks to online conversations. As so many complaints were made by individuals, action had to be taken. In this case, Jan Moir issued an apology a week after the publication saying that "absolutely none of this had anything to do with his sexuality,".

I think Jan Moir used her profession to post hateful stories about homosexuality. The Daily Mail must have known it would cause offense, but hey if a story sells, the money comes rolling in!