The Kalams: The Sun admits its lies

While British papers fulminate in spectacular fashion over what will come to be called Huffgate - how the BBC got it wrong about the Queen walking out of a photoshoot with photographer Annie Leibovitz - another example of the media getting it all wrong has drawn much more modest interest.

Last weekend I reported that the News of the World had "apologised" to the Kalam family over its lies in the Forest Gate raid case [click here]. Now it's the turn of its sister paper The Sun to apologise, in similar terms. Three important differences are worth noting.

The Screws wrongly claimed to have "incorrectly implied" falsehoods. The Sun correctly says it "incorrectly reported": the paper was wise to learn from Arcati. The Sun also reports that the computer found at the Kalams' house - on which child porn images were found - was "secondhand". This is a euphemistic way of saying that others, who are not members of the Kalam family, probably planted these images on the pc. Let us hope Scotland Yard has nothing to lose sleep over on this matter.

Finally, the Sun assures us that the two young brothers did not spit at or insult soldiers outside their barracks. Who dreamt up this lie in the first place?

This apology appears in a page 2 coffin - the editor hopes most readers won't notice it tucked away out of harm's way. There is no mention of News International paying a sum in compensation to the Kalams - would £2m be unreasonable? Shouldn't a news organisation that nearly destroys the reputation of an entire family pay the penalty of racist deceit or incompetence?

I notice also that media commentators are not too fussed by NI's apologies to the Kalams: they'd rather focus on sexy topics like Huffgate and fly off abroad to pointless media conferences where they can hustle each other for work and favours. Useless bastards.