The Sun forced to admit '1 in 5 British Muslims' story was 'significantly misleading'
The Sun has been forced to admit that its front page splash which claimed that “1 in 5 Brit Muslims’ have sympathy for jihadis”, was "significantly misleading".
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) ruled today (26 March) that the newspaper misrepresented the results of a poll, which formed the basis of the November article.
The poll results had been reported by the newspaper as demonstrating that those surveyed showed “some sympathy with those like Jihadi John” the newspaper’s columnist stated as fact that there was “support” for IS, and sympathy with a “murderous, twisted ideology”.
More than 3,000 complaints were lodged against the paper’s front page and The Sun was ordered to print a clarification statement.
A statement from IPSO read: "While the newspaper was entitled to interpret the poll’s findings, taken in its entirety, the coverage presented as a fact that the poll showed that 1 in 5 British Muslims had sympathy for those who left to join ISIS and for ISIS itself. In fact, neither the question nor the answers which referred to “sympathy” made reference to IS. The newspaper had failed to take appropriate care in its presentation of the poll results, and as a result the coverage was significantly misleading."
The Times was also found to be in breach after it published The Sun’s claims, however it had already published a clarification at the time.