Press regulator rejects Reform MS’s complaint against Nation.Cymru

Emily Price 

The press regulator has thrown out a complaint against Nation.Cymru from a Reform Senedd Member who claimed our reporting was inaccurate.

Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf MS Cai Parry-Jones referred an article published by Nation.Cymru in May to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), alleging that it breached the accuracy requirements of Clause 1 of the Editors’ Code.

The report was headlined, ‘Reform MS faces backlash over autism-friendly signage comments‘.

The story reported how Reform’s shadow minister for finance had been accused of mocking neurodivergent people after sharing an image online of an autism-friendly notice displayed in the Senedd’s toilets.

Warnings were added to the Welsh parliament’s toilet hand driers several years prior because they were considered to be louder than standard models.

Mr Parry-Jones was sharply criticised for mocking the signs, with critics suggesting he needed diversity training.

When we approached the former Cambridge University student for comment, he responded by doubling down on his remarks, saying “labelling things unnecessarily is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

He also suggested that he himself may be autistic.

When we asked Mr Parry-Jones whether he had considered using his new public platform to support autistic people, he responded by threatening legal action.

He said: “As I have clearly stated in my previous email, I am not ‘ridiculing’ people with autism, as you have accused.

“Furthermore, I take my reputation seriously, and an allegation of this kind is something on which I would take advice and reserve all my rights, including any legal remedies available to me.”

Legal action

Following the publication of our story, Mr Parry-Jones wrote to IPSO and claimed our article breached press accuracy rules when we reported how he had threatened legal action.

However, IPSO pointed out to the Reform MS that in his email to Nation.Cymru sent on 19 May he had said: “I would take advice and reserve all my rights, including any legal remedies available to me”.

The press regulator said that it didn’t consider it inaccurate to report that Mr Parry-Jones had threatened legal action, adding that in any event, Nation.Cymru had set out the Reform MS’s position in full, including his response to our questions.

For these reasons, the regulator said it “did not consider the article to be significantly inaccurate and did not identify sufficient grounds to investigate a possible breach of Clause 1”.

Mr Parry-Jones was given the opportunity to appeal the decision but chose not to do so.

Impartial 

The Reform Senedd Member previously published a research paper which he said demonstrated that Nation.Cymru’s reporting was “biased”.

However, critics argued that a politician investigating a news outlet that regularly scrutinises his own party could not be regarded as an independent or impartial assessor of its journalism.

In recent days Reform in the Senedd has strengthened its calls for Nation.Cymru to be defunded.

During questions to the culture minister last week, Gŵyr Abertawe MS Francesca O’Brien accused our reporters of routinely launching “partisan attacks through misleading reporting.”

Nation.Cymru was instrumental in exposing Ms O’Brien’s links to the far-right in Swansea and her jump from the Tories to Nigel Farage’s party ahead of the May 7 Senedd election.

We were the first outlet to reveal the racist text message sent by Reform MS Laura Anne Jones, which led to an investigation and subsequent 14-day suspension from the Senedd.

More recently, Nation.Cymru was the first news outlet to publish an image showing Reform Senedd election candidate Corey Edwards performing a Nazi salute.

We later revealed that after bowing out of the election race, Mr Edwards was given a job as a special advisor to Reform’s Welsh leader Dan Thomas.

The Books Council of Wales provides a periodicals grant which contributes towards our arts and culture coverage.

If Nation.Cymru were to lose this grant, it would make no difference to our news writing operation and our scrutiny of Welsh politicians would continue unchanged.