The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) has upheld a complaint against Mail Online over an article that referred to 'British towns that are no-go areas for white people'. The regulator dismissed the newspaper's defence that no reasonable reader would take the claim seriously.
The article, published in June, reported claims from a book by former Islamist radical Ed Husain. It included a headline stating 'British towns that are no-go areas for white people: Muslim author’s study of mosques reveals children ‘attacked for being white’'. However, Ipso found the headline was not supported by the article's content, which only referenced one area within a city described as a 'no-go area' for white people.
Ipso ordered Mail Online to publish a correction and ensure a link to it appears on the site's front page. The regulator noted that the article included an image of Didsbury, but only suggested it was home to a mosque hosting a sharia court, not that it was a no-go area for white people.
The complaint was brought against the Mail's coverage of Husain's book, which included claims from white men who said they were scared to go to the Whalley Range area of Blackburn due to violence from Asian teenagers. Ipso did not rule on a second complaint regarding prejudicial references to race, as the complainant was not personally affected.
