Headlines like this one from the UK newspaper 'The Sun' (average reader age 8 years old) dated 29th February 2008 are one of the prime reasons why mankind will continue to be trapped in the illusiory world of matter in which the mind-created sense of self and ego are dominant. This peice of 'journalism' (if it can be called that) is of the worst kind. It projects an image of a member of the UK 'Royal Family' as a 'hero' fighting a just cause. It boasts of how he killed 30 members of the same human race to which he belongs as if it were a glorious achievement - something to be proud of. It is patriotism gone mad.

In truth, it is something of which both he and the entire human race should be ashamed of.

Are we not all parts of one whole? Is it not wrong to take life?

Only when we stop creating enemies and divisions and recognise that we are all parts of each other, will we ever have peace in this world.

What we do to others we do to ourselves.


Robert Goodwin
February 29th 2007

Update 5th March 2008 - the 'reply' I received from the Press Complaints Commision and my subsequent response!


Dear Mr Goodwin

Thank you for writing to the Press Complaints Commission.

The PCC deals with complaints about possible breaches by newspapers and magazines of their own Code of Practice. 

As you will see, the Code does not cover matters of taste or offensiveness.  This is because the PCC recognises that newspapers must have editorial freedom to publish what they choose so long as the rights of individuals are not compromised by their content. Therefore, provided the stringent terms of the industry's own Code of Practice – designed especially to protect the individual – are not breached, the PCC cannot, and would not wish, to place any limits on editorial selection. If the PCC were to make the very subjective judgment as to whether material is 'tasteless' or 'offensive', it would be assuming the role of moral arbiter, which is ultimately to say censor. Instead, most editors are aware of what is and is not acceptable to their readership and, if miscalculations are made on this score, market forces will generally dictate they are not repeated.

Your complaint appears to concern a question of taste and offensiveness rather than a breach of a specific clause of the Code.  I do not think we will therefore be able to help you on this occasion.

If, however, you believe you have a complaint under the Code of Practice please write to us again by 14th March.

Yours sincerely

Patrick Evenden


......my response


Dear Patrick,

Thanks for your standard reply – it’s about what I expected, the norm for the society in which we live. Lets face it, no one really takes any responsibility for anything anymore and its far easier to issue a standard reply because, well the little man can’t do much against the big boys can he? Lets make it look as if he can complain, but in reality nothing will ever be done and nothing will change. I am sure Rupert Murdoch will continue to sleep easy in his bed.

My thoughts Patrick, for what they are worth, is that if the code does ‘not cover matters of taste or offensiveness’ then the code is wrong and should be amended. Perhaps there should be a moral code that applies in order to prevent trash papers like The Sun from printing the kind of offensive propaganda I brought to your attention. I do take your point about ‘market forces’ but this again, is a cop out. If you print a newspaper full of pictures of nude women, trivia and sport, the average man in the street will probably buy it regardless of whether there is an offensive headline or story slipped in. It’s as if the one offsets the other and nobody really bothers to question it. The really sad thing is that not enough people in the country even bother to question it.

In my humble opinion, which counts for very little it seems, the fact that a paper that is ‘read’ by millions in the UK can publish a front page headline paying tribute to someone (Prince Harry) for killing thirty human beings, whether or not they are considered ‘the enemy’ and get away with it, is appalling and deeply worrying. It is also a sad, sad reflection of our society which seems to value life as though it were nothing.

If organisations such as yours can do little more than fob off people like me with quotes from your little book of rules, then you are as impotent as the rest of those other ‘watchdogs’ and various bodies set up as protectors of the public.

I cannot help but wonder, what would be the outcry if I were to publish my own ‘newspaper’ with the headline ‘Prince Harry in evil act against fellow human beings’? Arrest....imprisonment....a fine....outcry.....

......the Big Brother state, with it’s daily diatribe of spin, propaganda and doublethink has arrived.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Goodwin