To be *livid* at this? Attempted murder of man working to make women's sport fairer

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So not only did Jeska use their unfair advantage to win medals meant for female athletes, but Jeska then tries to murder the man attemting to restore fairness to women's fell running:

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/transgender-womens-fell-running-champ-8891893

And yet, the BBC decide it's not relevant to the story that Jeska was born male:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-37439875

So, if you say you're a woman, you are a woman, and that's that. Biological facts are irrelevant.

"Nor does its absence not constitute an inaccuracy."

Not only is that an absurdly convoluted sentence, it says the opposite of what he wants it to say.

No, they're not limited to what is said in court. It's possible the reporter didn't know the background but you'd be a very poor reporter if you weren't interested in the background of the case at all. A 2 minute inquiry would have found the information.

But no - a guilty plea or conviction means you can report background except in rare cases where reporting before sentencing is restricted. But the fact that wasn't mentioned in the letters means it probably wasn't subject to a restriction.

how very odd! so the court case was 'accused person pleads guilty to attacking three men for no reason'

My understanding of court reporting is basic but I think the point is that the newspaper is protected from libel and from contempt of court proceedings if their reports are fair and accurate. Stating that someone is transgender isn't libellous if it is true. Though it might be against the Editors' Code.

Hi Spartacus: Yes the salient facts are the transgender status, and what Ralph was investigating when he was attacked. These are reportable facts.
Yes also - it could be against some kind of code but the code would have to be suitably vague - so that transgender status could only be reported if it was relevant. Possibly why the BBC never said Darbyshire was transgender.

I linked to the Editors Code a while ago - it says media organisations should not refer to someone's transgender status unless it is relevant. I can just about see an argument for not mentioning Clare Darbyshire's status but I think Lauren's is very relevant given the facts of the case as we understand them.

Sorry apart didn't see the link. Is it just a general uk editors code?

in fact, thinking a bit more, if Lauren's transgender status wasn't mentioned in court it's a good job she pleaded guilty. It would be a bit baffling to try and understand as a jury why a person would be made so angry into an investigation into their eligilbity that they would arm themselves and stab the person doing the investigation.

Yes - it's the self-imposed regulatory code for UK papers.

More here: www.editorscode.org.uk/index.php

The code was probably written by men with advice from male trans people. Of course it is always relevant if a trans woman commits a violent or sexual offence. But the trans activist advisers would keep quit and the male journalist writing the code wouldn't ask. It simply would not occur to them. They'd be nodding and smiling and trying to be right on.

I worked with a former reporter who had been hauled over the coals for reporting that the person on trial for rape in a case he was covering was transgender and had carried out the rape with their penis. He had not drunk the Kool-Aid and could not see how it would be correct to report any other way. He is no longer a journalist, I don't know if the two things are connected.

Are you able to say which case iamalsospartacus?
I assume details are in the public domain?

if a case is reported as a rape case then I suppose its redundant to mention the penis in the same way as you could report a shooting without mentioning the gun. And if the report referred to the defendant as 'she' then obviously must be trans as only a man can commit that crime. Was the reporters 'error' to name these facts rather than leaving readers to infer?

Hello Hairy, I'm afraid I don't have the specific details. I have tried to look for the report but it's possible it was removed from online publication.

Errol - I thought the offence could be committed otherwise, e.g. with an object, but have checked and you are right. it would be a very confusing report though.

I know it is a bit off topic but has anybody done the Box Hill fell race?

No box hill experience here I'm afraid (I'm too northern)

I am bricking it for the Langdale horseshoe at the minute though. Fellow competitors of both sexes will all beat me!

I'm sure you'll be fine - good luck! (Sadly I won't be doing it but it's a great route)

Thankyou!

I have (finally!) got a reply from the BBC to my complaint which differs a bit from yours Wanking which seems a bit more positive inasmuch as it's not saying 'here's our trans policy, you bigot' and that they will be telling the story 'in full' when sentencing is complete.

^Dear Ms Lynda

Thank you for getting in touch about our article reporting that Lauren Jeska has admitted stabbing three top athletics staff at a major UK stadium. (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-37439875)

Our piece was based on the information that came out in Birmingham Crown Court - including a point made by the defence during proceedings that a diagnosis of autism may be raised at the next hearing - and the Press Association reporter in attendance confirmed that the fact that Lauren Jeska is a transgender woman wasn’t mentioned.

When he subsequently tried to confirm this fact with the Crown Prosecution Service and West Midlands Police neither of them would confirm this.

We’re aware that other media have reported that the CPS and West Midlands Police confirmed she is transgender but our West Midlands team made their own checks, including speaking to the police who denied confirming it.

They also made a call to the CPS the same day but didn’t get a response before the reporter went off-duty.

This led to further discussions within the team the next day in which they decided to wait until confirmation of this fact came out at sentencing, when they will be able to tell the story in full.

We hope you’ll find this useful in explaining the process by which we put this story together and why this detail was not included in our story at this time.

Thank you once again for getting in touch.

Kind Regards

BBC Complaints Team^

Lynda well that's something. Thanks for sharing

That's a great response. It's much fuller than the one someone else got. I wonder if they had quite a lot of complaints and had a rethink. That's certainly much more detail than a 'standard' letter.

Of course they might choose not to report the sentencing, in order to avoid the sticky issue altogether.

It's concerning that the police and CPS would not confirm that the accused is MTT. In my view, trans status is always relevant when reporting violent crime. The imbalance between rates of committing violent crime are so unbalanced - men committing almost all violent crime - that small numbers of MTT crime being reported as crimes by women will have a significant impact on the numbers. I wonder if we will have stories in a few years about an increase in violent crime reported by women.

new guidance has been published by the press regulator (IPSO) on stories involving trans individuals. They engaged with trans lobbyists while preparing it.

www.ipso.co.uk/news-press-releases/opinion/ipso-blog-guidance-on-researching-and-reporting-stories-featuring-transgender-individuals/