Evelyn: the truth
Legal action has been threatened against Oxford's red-top student paper, the Cherwell, after its salacious gossip column, Jane Evelyn's wrongly reported that two male students had been seen kissing each other in the Purple Turtle nightclub. The two students have vociferously denied the allegations and are both understood to have long-term girlfriends.
One of the two, John Storey, said he was "outraged" by the unfounded and untrue allegations, and it is understood that the Cherwell has been forced into printing a prominent apology in this week's issue. The other offended party was unwilling to be named as he did not wish to attract any further adverse publicity.
Storey said, "They abused press integrity by not checking the veracity of the story while at the same time claiming entitlement under press integrity not to name their source."
Storey felt the unwillingness of the paper to print a front page apology was particularly "hypocritical" in light of the fact that Cherwell's Managing Director, Alex von Tunzelmann had asked for a front page apology in the OxStu after a similar incident last term. Storey added that Ms Von Tunzelmann had "argued that a front page apology wasn't a good idea, which I thought was a bit rich considering she had wanted one herself."
Matt Brindley, Cherwell's Deputy Editor replied however that, "The Press Complaints Commission only specifies that apologies be of the same size and in the same place as the original article. We upgraded the apology as a gesture of goodwill and John Storey agreed to that in the meeting."
This most recent 'mea culpa' in the Cherwell follows yet another printed apology in Jane Evelyn last week, following a similar blunder.