More than six months after The Sun published an article detailing Jeremy Clarkson’s “dream” for Meghan Markle to be attacked in the street, a complaint against the newspaper has been upheld.More than 25,000 complaints were made about the article published in December 2022. Industry association & complaints-handler IPSO dismissed most of these but pursued four complaints from the Fawcett Society and the Wilde Foundation. These complaints alleged sexism, racism, inaccuracy and harassment.Today IPSO has announced that the complaint of sexism has been upheld.This is the first time in IPSO’s entire history that it has upheld a complaint of sexism against any newspaper and is credit to the expertise and tenacity of the complainant organisations, Fawcett Society and the Wilde Foundation, and their members.However, the judgement does not require any further action from The Sun other than the publication of an adjudication.Commenting, journalist & Hacked Off Board Director EMMA JONES said,

Hacked Off congratulates the Fawcett Society, the Wilde Foundation, the 25,100 other complainants, the 60 MPs to speak out and the Duchess of Sussex on securing from IPSO what is a remarkably rare finding of discrimination against a member publisher, and the first ever finding of sexism.It is obvious that without the huge public outrage, and involvement of expert organisations the Fawcett Society and Wilde Foundation, this outcome could not have been achieved.Sadly, the adjudication provides a vivid reminder of the toothlessness of the complaints body as today's finding carries no meaningful sanction and delivers no real consequences for the Sun, for the editor who published a grossly misogynistic article or for the columnist who wrote it. No one has been disciplined and no reforms are required which could prevent this happening again.

Jemima Olchawski, Fawcett Society Chief Executive said:

The Fawcett Society has made history with our complaint against The Sun for its publication of Jeremy Clarkson’s vile and offensive column about the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. We are so proud to stand with the thousands of Fawcett members who made this possible. The column should never have appeared in print or online – its publication legitimised sexism and misogyny and that is never acceptable. We stand with Hacked Off and call for more to be done to ensure our media outlets do not support the peddling of hate by publishing content like Clarkson’s.

Contact: press@hackinginquiry.org