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19/10/2009
Gately Article Provokes Complaints
Just hours after the singer's cremation, police have received a complaint about an article written by a UK newspaper columnist about the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately.
Scotland Yard said it refers to Jan Moir's article, published in Friday's Daily Mail, which also prompted more than 1,000 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We have received a complaint from a member of the public."
The development came after Gately's Boyzone bandmates led the mourning at his funeral in Dublin on Saturday at which Ronan Keating sang and helped carry the 33-year-old's coffin along with Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch during the ceremony, which was watched by thousands of people.
After Stephen Gately died the previous Saturday in his apartment in Port Andratx, Majorca, the newspaper column about the gay singer's death, said: "Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again. Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one."
And she signed off: "For once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see."
A spokesman for the PCC said of the 1,000 complaints received, many were relating to questions of accuracy, intrusion and discrimination.
He said the PCC had already established links with Gately's family in case they had wanted to express an opinion about the coverage of his death.
Responding, the Mail's columnist said: "Some people, particularly in the gay community, have been upset by my article about the sad death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately. This was never my intention. Stephen, as I pointed out in the article, was a charming and sweet man who entertained millions."
She issued a response in which she branded suggestions of homophobia as "mischievous" and claimed the backlash was a "heavily orchestrated internet campaign".
(BMcC/KMcA)
Scotland Yard said it refers to Jan Moir's article, published in Friday's Daily Mail, which also prompted more than 1,000 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We have received a complaint from a member of the public."
The development came after Gately's Boyzone bandmates led the mourning at his funeral in Dublin on Saturday at which Ronan Keating sang and helped carry the 33-year-old's coffin along with Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch during the ceremony, which was watched by thousands of people.
After Stephen Gately died the previous Saturday in his apartment in Port Andratx, Majorca, the newspaper column about the gay singer's death, said: "Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again. Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one."
And she signed off: "For once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see."
A spokesman for the PCC said of the 1,000 complaints received, many were relating to questions of accuracy, intrusion and discrimination.
He said the PCC had already established links with Gately's family in case they had wanted to express an opinion about the coverage of his death.
Responding, the Mail's columnist said: "Some people, particularly in the gay community, have been upset by my article about the sad death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately. This was never my intention. Stephen, as I pointed out in the article, was a charming and sweet man who entertained millions."
She issued a response in which she branded suggestions of homophobia as "mischievous" and claimed the backlash was a "heavily orchestrated internet campaign".
(BMcC/KMcA)
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