ABERDEEN's daily The Press and Journal landed itself in hot water after the press regulator upheld a report that it misrepresented a Scottish independence march.
The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) accepted a complaint under the Accuracy Clause of the editor's code after it emerged that the Unionist counter-protest turnout figures were inaccurate.
The figures, written in a caption under a photograph, said that "around 2,500 pro-Union supporters turned out for a counter-rally", in reality, only 40 to 60 people had actually turned up.
The Press and Journal accepted the inaccuracy, citing human error as the cause. It denied the inaccuracy was significant, saying the incorrect figure would be obvious to most readers.
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However, Ipso declared the number as a "significant inaccuracy due to the large difference between the reported and actual figure".
It has since posted a clarification, which read: "In a picture caption on page five of yesterday’s edition, it was wrongly stated that 'around 2,500' pro-Union supporters attended a counter-rally against a pro-independence march in Aberdeen on Saturday. That was in fact the number of people that the pro-Union group estimated had joined the main independence march. We are happy to correct this error and apologise for any confusion caused."
Three days later, after establishing a formal estimate, the publication issued a further clarification that said: "In a picture caption on page five of Monday’s edition, it was wrongly stated that “around 2,500” pro-Union supporters attended a counter-rally against a pro-independence march in Aberdeen on Saturday. In fact there were estimated to be around 40-60. The 2,500 figure – as correctly stated in the article the caption accompanied – was the number of people that the pro-Union group estimated had joined the main independence march. We are happy to correct this error and apologise for any confusion caused."
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