Mail Online, Express correct 3 inaccurate migrant stories

by Luke Lythgoe | 16.06.2016
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Two tabloids have corrected stories on terrorism and migrant crime after InFacts complained to the press watchdog.

The Mail Online corrected two separate misleading headlines: one that the US intelligence chief had said IS used Europe’s open borders to plant sleeper cells in UK; the other that a minister had said the UK could stop ten times more terror suspects if it left the EU.

Meanwhile, The Express corrected a story saying EU migrants are convicted of 700 crimes each week.

These three stories were part of a batch of 11 inaccurate stories that InFacts reported last month to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). Two of the other stories have already been corrected – one by The Telegraph and one by the Mail Online – taking the total number of corrections to five.

InFacts has also complained to IPSO about another nine articles contained in a second dossier. None of these has yet been resolved.


US intelligence chief didn’t say IS used Europe’s open borders to plant sleeper cells in UK

The Mail Online reported on an interview with the US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Its original headline read:

Clapper never made a link between sleeper cells in the UK and Europe’s open borders, but rather made the two comments in response to consecutive questions (here, around 30 mins). The Mail Online’s link is erroneous because Britain is not part of the EU’s open borders Schengen Area.

The website corrected the headline to:

The Mail Online also added a footnote to its article, acknowledging the change, as well as recognising the original headline’s inaccuracy in its Clarifications and Corrections column.

InFacts has two complaints outstanding on similar misleading articles in The Telegraph and The Express.


Minister didn’t say UK could stop ten times more terror suspects if it left EU

The Mail Online produced another inaccurate story reporting a speech on border security by eurosceptic justice minister Dominic Raab. The original headline read:

Raab never said this. He said that, since 2010, the UK has refused entry at its borders to 67,000 non-EU citizens compared to 6,000 EU citizens (listen from 24:15). But the non-EU citizens stopped were not mainly, let alone all, terror suspects or security threats. Raab’s statistics compared apples with oranges.

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The Mail Online corrected the headline to:

The website also corrected its introduction and a picture caption, as well as recognising the changes in its Clarifications and Corrections column.


EU migrants not convicted of 700 crimes each week

The Express originally ran the following headline:

But the National Police Chiefs’ Council statistics on which these “700 crimes” are based were clearly described as “NOT conviction data”. Rather they refer to criminal notifications, which include other things like appeals and breaches of court orders.

The Daily Mail and The Telegraph, which made similar errors, have already corrected their versions after complaints from InFacts. The Express corrected its headline to:

The Express also changed its sub-head, main photo caption and four other paragraphs in its copy. It also added a correction to the article recognising the amendments.

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Edited by Hugo Dixon

3 Responses to “Mail Online, Express correct 3 inaccurate migrant stories”

  • Lots of things have been said by both sides,the two things first mentioned could well be true,and a load of other things.
    Just because EU. In keeps on going on about EU OUT is wrong for this country,the people in Brexit have decided they want there independence back.
    Want,immigration sorted out,they cannot do it at the minute.
    Want to keep the pound,no euro.
    Want control of our money,stocks and shares system,London.
    Want full control of our transport,so the EU cannot take it over to fetch all the immigrants in.
    We will have control of our airports,ports,trains,planes,lorries etc.
    There are many,many,many things we will get with Brexit to make Great Britain,GREAT again.
    Our people will decide,most of them are Brexit,because we want our country back to how we want it.

  • Gordie: Ok, you Uk cannot control EU immigration (but it is a 2 way street).
    But to your other points: Uk has the pound and no-one is remotely suggesting that this will change (only, obviously those from the brexit campaign)
    Uk conrtols his money, stocks, etc, even more, it controls the euro trading as well (something that last year the ECJ that the brexites so much despised has confirmed to the UK because it is in theEU despite the ECB wanted this control back in the eurozone)
    Immigration,even from the EU can be sorted out in the sense that UK can ban entry to any EU criminal if it would implement its own laws on border security.
    UK has full control of its transport systems (for example in Italy, France and Germany, the railway is in public hands). Planes?: well the are zero restrictions on the “Open Sky” agreement in the EU (also extending to some EU countries) and there are no restriction from EU how UK planes can operate in the rest of the world (therefore no more control UK can obtain from brexit). Then transport to fetch all the immigrants – you say? Well this point does not deserve an answer, just an invitation to see that all the transports in UK are used by UK citizens and rest of the world (including EU), therefore this point of yours is irrelevant as spurious nonsensical.

  • Errata- Corrige:
    Gordie: Ok, Uk cannot control EU immigration (but it is a 2 way street).
    But to your other points: Uk has the pound and no-one is remotely suggesting that this will change (only, obviously for political convenience those from the brexit campaign)
    Uk controls its money, stocks, etc, even more: it controls the euro trading as well (something that last year the ECJ that the brexites so much despised has confirmed to the UK because it is in the EU despite the ECB wanted this control back in the eurozone)
    Immigration, even from the EU can be sorted out in the sense that UK can ban entry to any EU criminal if it would implement its own laws on border security.
    UK has full control of its transport systems (for example in Italy, France and Germany, the railway is in public hands). Planes?: well the are zero restrictions on the “Open Sky” agreement in the EU (also extending to some EU countries) and there are no restriction from EU how UK planes can operate in the rest of the world (therefore no more control UK can obtain from brexit). Then transport to fetch all the immigrants? – you say! Well this point does not deserve an answer, just an invitation to see that all the transports in UK are used by UK citizens and rest of the world (including EU), therefore this point of yours is irrelevant as spurious nonsensical.