The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) has upheld a complaint against Mail Online for falsely suggesting in reports that a lorry had ploughed into pedestrians in central London.

Ipso received about 30 complaints that the Mail Online, the website of the Daily Mail newspaper, had breached the editors’ code by publishing inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images in its coverage of a heavy police presence near Oxford Circus on 24 November.

Police ultimately stood down after responding to a feared terrorist incident, which turned out to be a false alarm.

As armed police and officers from British Transport Police rushed to the scene, the Mail Online ran an article under the headline “BREAKING NEWS: ‘Gunshots fired’ as armed police surround Oxford Circus tube station and shoppers flee ‘after lorry ploughs into pedestrians’”. No shots had been fired and no lorry had ploughed into pedestrians. Furthermore, a tweet that the publication relied upon as a source for its claim that a lorry was involved was 10 days old.



The complainants said the article, including the headline, was inaccurate, as there was no evidence to suggest that a lorry had struck pedestrians. The complaints also said the article had been retweeted many times, although it was amended and the tweet was deleted.



Mail Online said the detail was removed from the article seven minutes after it was published and the tweet was deleted from the publication’s Twitter feed 11 minutes after it was published. After becoming aware of the complaints to Ipso, it published an apology acknowledging the error six days after the article was published.

In its ruling, Ipso said: “The media plays an important role in informing the public of emerging developments. However, even in such circumstances, a publication must still demonstrate that it has taken appropriate care over the accuracy of the information it publishes.



“Where the timestamp of the tweet made it clear this was not a contemporaneous account, the publication had failed to take care over the accuracy of the article and the information published in the tweet.” This breached the editors’ code, Ipso concluded.

However, the Ipso committee decided that the prompt publication of a standalone correction and apology, which was also tweeted by the publication’s Twitter account, as well as the publication of a footnote correction to the article, was sufficient enough not to warrant any further remedial action.



• This article was amended on 8 March. The original version stated that Ipso had upheld a complaint relating to claims that gunshots were fired at Oxford Circus. The complaint actually related specifically to the claim that a lorry had struck pedestrians.