Thread by @fairplaywomen

Complaint submitted to @IPSOnews : Breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy). Misleading reporting of sex. /1
eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/denen-ander…

The use of 'Her phone' in the headline straight away implies to readers this is an unusual case of a female teenager who has committed the crime of accessing child pornography - a crime more commonly committed by members of the male sex /2

This is further substantiated by the word 'woman' in the first sentence of the text. This is a breach of the Editors Code on Accuracy because this is misleading. The individual involved was not born female and is in fact someone who was born male and now identifies as a woman /3

This will have been known to the court reporter or easily checked because the defendant was listed as STEVEN (see copy of court listing below). /4

It is now common practice for court officials to use feminine pronouns if a male person identifies as a woman. This means feminine pronouns should no longer be considered an accurate reflection of an individual's sex. Court reporters will be aware of this practice now /5

While verbatim quotes from judges and barristers will necessarily contain preferred pronouns any comments made by the newspaper such as "a woman who downloaded...." should not be using gendered terms without context because this misleads the reader. /6

This can be achieved by not using gendered terms at all. "a teenager who..." or "a person who...". Or if they do choose to use gendered terms then be clear this is in reference to a gender identity and not sex "A teenager who identifies as a woman...". /7

This inaccuracy regarding sex is in a breach of the code because it significantly affects the central point of the article - a male found downloading child pornography. It matters because this is giving the false impression this person was female /8

This distorts public perception about the sexed pattern of this particular crime. It is incredibly rare for females to download child pornography but relatively common offence in males (today there are ~13,000 males in prison for sexual offences and less than 150 females) /9

The complaint to IPSO has been submitted today. We will update in a few weeks with their reply and decision /end

eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/denen-ander…