IPSO defends clearing Katie Hopkins article likening migrants to cockroaches
Press regulator IPSO has defended its decision clear an antagonistic Sun article in which Katie Hopkins likened migrants to cockroaches by stating that migrants as a group cannot be discriminated against.
Chief executive Matt Tee defended the regulators decision to overrule complaints about the piece, written in April last year, despite internal unease at this stance – with Sir Alan Moses, chair of the body, voicing frustration at the lack of action.
Speaking to the Media Masters podcast Tee said: “Migrants as such are not a group that can be discriminated against. And actually in our terms for it to be discrimination, the complainant would have had to show that an individual or a group of individuals were discriminated against by that phrase.
“I felt that the phrase was in very bad taste but bad taste is not something that is covered by the editors’ code.”
Tee wouldn’t be drawn on whether the piece in effect served as an incitement to racial hatred, saying that was a matter for the police.