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MailOnline’s ‘Wales bans English holidaymakers’ story found to be ‘significantly misleading’

25 Jul 2021 2 minute read
‘Ban’ on English visitors press coverage.

A story claiming the Welsh Government had banned English holidaymakers has been found to be ‘significantly misleading’ by a press watchdog.

MailOnline has been forced to publish a correction after a complaint was upheld by the Independent Press Standards Organisation about a story published on March 27th headlined, ‘Wales BANS English holidaymakers’.

The story claimed that First Minister Mark Drakeford had imposed a ban on English holidaymakers with only Welsh people being allowed to stay in holiday lets.

In reality, it was the UK Government that had restricted unnecessary travel outside of England.

The MailOnline correction states: “An article headlined ‘Wales BANS English holidaymakers: First Minister Mark Drakeford lifts tourism ban on March 27 – but insists only Welsh people can stay in holiday lets’, published on 12 March 2021 reported that the Welsh Government and its First Minister had ‘banned’ English holidaymakers from the country when, in fact, it was the result of restrictions introduced by the UK Government that did not permit unnecessary travel outside of England at the time.”

Similar misleading headline claims were made by the Daily Telegraph.

‘Muppets’

The inaccuracies were highlighted at the time by Nation.Cymru, with Arfon Jones, who was then North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, branding the media ‘muppets’ for spreading false information.

The original MailOnline story has been updated to add the correction but remains online with more than 1,900 comments – the majority of them criticising the Welsh Government.

Among the top-rated comments are: “He comes across as a petty nationalist who doesn’t like the English.”

Another states: “People like Drakeford and Sturgeon have been using the pandemic to try and score political points and divide the Nation. Nasty people.”

Misleading

The IPSO ruling concluded: “The headline, in the view of the Committee, had misrepresented the announcement by the First Minister, who appeared to merely reiterate the restrictions already imposed by the UK government.

“On this basis, the newspaper had failed to take care not to publish misleading information in breach of Clause 1(i). This was significantly misleading, creating the misimpression that the Welsh Government had introduced a distinct policy on the matter, which it had not.”

MailOnline did not accept any breach of the code and denied that the story was inaccurate, saying they were ‘entitled to characterise the comments in the way it did’.


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GW Atkinson
GW Atkinson
2 years ago

Too late, the damage to England’s self proclaimed victimhood has already been done. Poor them, “Won’t anyone please think of the Inglish?” The Daily Fail won’t even apologise for their lies ffs.

Last edited 2 years ago by GW Atkinson
Richard
Richard
2 years ago

The Mail is “entitled” to tell lies then. Now what other mouthy tory does that call to mind …

Mick Tems
Mick Tems
2 years ago

The Daily Heil and the Torygraph are lie factories of industrial proportions.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
2 years ago

The DM is crap, it rushes to print material before it is verified. However, what it reported should be what the Welsh Parliament is looking into. There are too many people crossing the border who disregard Welsh law because they believe it is irrelevant, they will raise infection levels here. The Welsh government needs to get heavy-handed with these people or somehow stop them from entering the country all together.

j humphrys
j humphrys
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Duggan

The people we would like to come are too civilized to do so.
In future times I hope we can attract this sort of guest.

Mr Williams
Mr Williams
2 years ago

They are anti-Welsh, English nationalist newspapers. They hate us and they will never change. We should show them the contempt they deserve and boycott them. Sadly many Welsh shops sell them and many Welsh people still buy and read them. Why, I can’t explain.

Quornby
Quornby
2 years ago

“significantly misleading” is establishment speak for lies.

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