The civil partner of the late Boyzone member Stephen Gately filed a complaint against a newspaper columnist for an article about the singer’s death, reports said Thursday.
Andrew Cowles complained to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) against Jan Moir’s column in the Daily Mail in which Cowles claimed the writer violated guidelines on accuracy, discrimination and intrusion into grief and shock.
An investigation by the PCC will also be looking into 25,000 complaints over the article.
On the other hand, Moir has also expressed remorse over the piece in which the Irish pop star’s death was called “strange, lonely and troubling.”
According to the article, which was published a day prior to the funeral, Gately’s death adversely affected the “happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships”. Moir later said that the article did not suggest any homophobic implications.
The Boyzone star was found dead in his Majorcan holiday home on 10 October. Investigations suggested his death was of a natural cause.
Meanwhile, Director Stephen Abell of the PCC was quoted by the BBC news website as saying, “We’re now investigating this complaint which we are taking forward formally and we’ll consider it together with the 25,000 complaints as soon as possible.”
Moir’s article brought about the highest number of complaints made about one news piece.
According to Moir’s article: “The Gately family are—perhaps understandably—keen to register their boy’s demise on the national consciousness as nothing more than a tragic accident.”
She added: “Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one. Let us be absolutely clear about this.”
Moir later regretted any offence caused by the article and said, “Absolutely none of this had anything to do with his sexuality.”
