- Target:
- Press Complaints Commission
- Region:
- United Kingdom
In December, 2012, Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn wrote an article attacking the personal choice of Mr Upton, a primary school teacher from Accrington, to undergo a gender change and become a female - Miss Meadows.
Littlejohn's article made no effort to hide its hateful and mocking tone, and was deleted from the Daily Mail website upon the announcement of Miss Meadow's sudden death.
In March of this year, Miss Meadows was found dead at her home - likely from suicide. Nobody is under the illusion that the press coverage of her gender change was of no effect on this, and neither could anybody be in doubt that Littlejohn's article was a primary catalyst.
Littlejohn has repeatedly used his twice-weekly column in the Daily Mail to attack, with relentless and unashamed hatred, minorities, homosexuals, disabled people and others who have done little to provoke him. This is not journalism, it is hate speech. There is no other term for it.
This petition does not seek to remove Littlejohn's freedom of speech; it seeks to remove him from the position of influence which he continually abuses. The livelihood of many innocent individuals depend upon his resignation.
THE ARTICLE IN QUESTION: http://web.archive.org/web/20121221195332/http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2251347/Nathan-Uptons-wrong-body--hes-wrong-job.html
The reporting of Miss Meadows' death: http://www.newstatesman.com/media/2013/03/lucy-meadows-trans-teacher-whose-gender-reassignment-made-news-found-dead-home-0
We, the undersigned, call upon Richard Littlejohn, columnist for the Daily Mail, to resign his position, for the continued abuse of his column as means of attacking vulnerable individuals, with no just cause for the aggression.
Littlejohn is repeatedly allowed, by the Daily Mail, to break clause 12, "Discrimination" of the Editor's code of practice, set by the Press Complaints Commission.
In March this year, Miss Meadows, a primary school teacher, committed suicide at her home in Accrington. Miss Meadows had previously been the subject of a hateful article by Littlejohn, which had lead to her receiving a flurry of hate-mail.
The undersigned find Littlejohn's discriminative writings offensive, and find his direct role in Meadows' grief and indirect role in her suicide appalling.
Thus, the undersigned call upon Littlejohn to resign from his position at the Daily Mail for continued ignorance of regulations which seek to protect those who wish to live free from prejudice.
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The A Call for the Resignation of Richard Littlejohn petition to Press Complaints Commission was written by Benjamin Davies and is in the category Media Issues at GoPetition.