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Sunday Mirror under pressure to reveal details of Tory minister ‘sexting’ sting Sunday Mirror under pressure to reveal details of Tory minister ‘sexting’ sting
(about 5 hours later)
The Sunday Mirror has come under increasing pressure to provide details of its sting on minister for civil society, Brooks Newmark, after it emerged that the MP was just one of several contacted by a male reporter posing as young female Conservative supporter. The Sunday Mirror was facing accusations of entrapment on Sunday night over a sting on the minister for civil society, Brooks Newmark, after it emerged he was just one of several MPs contacted by a male freelance reporter posing as a young female Conservative supporter on social media.
Newmark resigned on Saturday ahead of a story which revealed he had exchanged explicit images with an undercover reporter, purporting to be “Sophie Wittams”, an attractive “Twentysomething Tory PR girl”. Newmark resigned on Saturday, on the eve of the Conservative party conference, before the publication of a story that revealed he had exchanged explicit images with the undercover reporter, who was purporting to be an attractive “twentysomething Tory PR girl”.
The reporter created a fictional account of “Sophie Wittams” on Twitter , which has since been deleted, and appears to have contacted at least six Conservative MPs including Ukip defector Mark Reckless. After exchanging direct message with “Sophie” on Twitter, Newmark exchanged numbers with her, before sending her explicit pictures of himself using instant message application WhatsApp. The reporter, who is not on the staff of the Sunday Mirror, created a fictional account of “Sophie Wittams” on Twitter, which has since been deleted, and appears to have contacted at least six Conservative MPs including the latest Ukip defector, Mark Reckless.
Questions have been raised about whether the story amounts to a “fishing expedition”, and whether the newspaper was justified in using subterfuge. The paper said the reporter made contact with Newmark while investigating the alleged inappropriate use of social media by MPs. After exchanging direct messages with “Sophie” on Twitter, Newmark swapped numbers with her then sent explicit pictures of himself using the instant message application WhatsApp. It is not known whether the woman whose image was used to set up the fake Twitter account had given consent, or to whom the further explicit images sent to the MP from the fake account belonged.
According to Buzzfeed the fake Twitter account was also used to contact Tory MP Nick De Bois, the member for Enfield North. “Sophie” called Charlie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover and Deal a “legend”, while Robert Jenrick, elected at the Newark byelection in June, was described as a “fitty”. Mark Pritchard, Tory MP for The Wrekin in Shropshire and Jesse Norman, the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, were also contacted. Evidence from the deleted account suggests that some MPs gave polite responses. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any of the other MPs contacted. At least one MP is understood to be considering lodging a complaint with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), which governs Mirror journalists’ behaviour. Its editors’ code of practice states: “Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means.” The body confirmed on Sunday that, unlike the Press Complaints Commission, it was capable of taking proactive action against a news organisation even if a complaint had not been made. The PCC upheld a complaint from the MP Tim Farron after a sting on Vince Cable and others in 2010, ruling that the Daily Telegraph had embarked on a “fishing expedition” that was “designed solely to entrap members of parliament” and had no plausible public interest justification.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) editors’ code of practice, which governs Mirror journalists’ behaviour, states: “Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means.” Charlotte Harris, expert media lawyer at Mishcon de Reya said the sting on Newmark was in similar, dangerous territory. “I think many members of the public reading the Sunday Mirror story will consider that it does amount to entrapment – particularly if you look at when the story has been used. If you are looking to expose hypocrisy then you need to expose it when you discover it, not when you are going to get the best headline,” she said.
Organisations can claim public interest to support justify the publication of reports which “detect or expose crime or serious impropriety” or “prevent the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation”. The code also states that “everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications”, adding that “editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent”. Harris said the timing of the story could be unfortunate for the newspaper, coming just days after Trinity Mirror agreed to pay an estimated £10m compensation to 10 victims of phone hacking, including the former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson and the former Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston. “We are no longer in a situation where newspapers can simply say this is in the public interest and expect the public to accept that,” she said. “In the post-Leveson environment the Sunday Mirror needs to be ready to justify its methods and not expect to be able to publish a story like this without criticism.”
The Sunday Mirror, which did not respond immediately for a request for comment on the story, may argue that its use of the fake Twitter account was legitimate way to expose the behaviour of a married MP who had been a vocal champion of getting more women into parliament. Newmark, who owns the investment firm Telesis Management and whose wealth was estimated at £3.2m in 2009, was contacted by “Sophie”, before engaging in a series of flirtatious messages and photograph exchanges.
Lloyd Embley, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, briefly defended the story on Twitter on Sunday. Journalist and social media consultant Sue Llewellyn tweeted the editor: “Unethical Mirror ‘sexting’ sting. Reporter sent explicit picture of ‘Sophie’. Whose picture was it?!”, to which he replied “1) it wasn’t a Mirror sting 2) there’s a nailed on public interest”. Further requests for comment and details of the woman’s image used in the sting remained unanswered. The MP for Braintree – who founded the Tory campaign “Women2Win” aimed at getting more women in parliament – invited “Sophie” to an event and told her to “feel free to drop by parliament anytime for a chat”. Having exchanged private numbers, he asked for a picture . In return he sent her a photograph of himself sitting on his bed wearing a white T-shirt. He then sent a below-the-waist shot of himself in a pair of paisley pyjamas.
The image of the young woman linked with the fake Twitter account used to contact Newmark and others has been linked to several other social media accounts, but it is not known if the Sunday Mirror sought the consent of the woman or if further, more explicit images sent to Newmark were of the same woman. Newmark quit his ministerial role the day before the story’s publication, telling ITV News: “I have been a complete fool. I have no one to blame but myself. I have hurt those I care about most.”
Former MP, Louise Mensch, tweeted: “Daily Mirror really needs to answer whose photo it used to entrap Brooks Newmark. Was girl used with permission?” There was speculation yesterday that the image used to set up the fake profile may be of a Swedish model. Other images used on the profile appeared to have been taken from other Twitter users.
According to Buzzfeed the fake account was also used over a period of time to contact the Tory MP for Enfield North, Nick De Bois. “Sophie” called Charlie Elphicke, Tory MP for Dover and Deal, a “legend”, while Robert Jenrick, elected at the Newark byelection in June, was described as a “fitty”.
Mark Pritchard, Tory MP for The Wrekin in Shropshire, and Jesse Norman, MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, were also contacted. Evidence from the account suggests some MPs gave polite responses. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any of them.
The editors’ code states that “everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications”, adding that “editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent”.
News organisations can claim public interest to justify publication of reports that “detect or expose crime or serious impropriety” or “prevent the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation”.
The Sunday Mirror said the story was clearly in the public interest. Alison Phillips, Mirror editor (weekends), said: “This investigation was brought to the Sunday Mirror by a freelance reporter. The investigation, which had a clear public interest, was carried out following information from a reliable source.”
Phillips added that as Newmark was a co-founder of Women2Win campaign he was at the forefront of Conservative party attempts to promote more women MPs. “Therefore his exchanges with someone he believed to be a young intern interested in politics were wholly inappropriate. Mr Newmark has apologised for his actions and resigned.”
Evan Harris, a member of the campaign group Hacked Off, said the story raised serious questions of journalistic ethics. “Even if there ends up being a public interest justification for the subterfuge, we know from the Telegraph’s Vince Cable consituency surgery “sting” operation that even the soft-touch Press Complaints Commission considered mere “fishing expeditions” to be against the newspaper ethics code,” he said. “This is because you need to have a reasonable suspicion before entrapping people into sexual or other indiscretions. It seems that the tabloids have learned nothing from the Mazher Mahmood farrago.”
A spokesman from Ipso said: “Ipso will look into any complaint about the story concerned if any such complaint is submitted.”