Press Complaints Commission condemns payment to woman whose brother stabbed his stepfather with a kitchen knife
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guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 April 2013 15.32 BST
That's Life magazine has been censured by the Press Complaints Commission.
Women's weekly That's Life has been censured by the Press Complaints Commission for paying the sister of a murderer for her story.
Louise Hodgson was paid an undisclosed amount by the magazine after her brother, Christopher Hodgson, was convicted of murdering his stepfather with an eight-inch kitchen knife last year.
It is against the PCC editor's code to pay criminals or their associates – including family, friends and colleagues – unless the story is in the public interest.
That's Life argued that it had not glamourised or glorified the story and that Hodgson was a victim of the crime, not an associate. The Bauer-owned weekly did not argue that the payment was justified in the public interest.
In a ruling published on Friday, the PCC said the story was in breach of the editors' code. Hodgson had "directly benefited" from her brother's crime as a result of the payment, the watchdog said.
"Complaints to the commission under this clause of the code are relatively rare," said Charlotte Dewar, head of the PCC's complaints and pre-publication services. "This ruling provides a clear example of how the commission interprets the code's prohibition on payments for material that seeks to 'exploit' a particular crime when there is no public interest in its publication."
The PCC investigation was sparked by a complaint from Treena McIntyre, the sister of the murder victim, Steven McIntyre.
A separate complaint about the story under Clause 5 of the editor's code, governing intrusion into grief or shock, was not upheld.
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