An article by Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir has resulted in a record number of complaints being made to the UK's Press Complaints Commission.
The article, published in Friday's edition of the paper, the day before Mr Gately's funeral, has so far prompted 21,000 complaints - the highest ever for a single article in the UK.
It was not carried in the Irish edition of the newspaper and the Office of the Press Ombudsman has said it only deals with complaints relating to material published in Ireland.
The PCC says it will write to the Mail to seek a response even if Mr Gately's family did not make a formal complaint. It usually requires directly affected parties to complain before acting.
Police in the UK have also received a complaint about the article.
Some gay rights campaigners said the article, headlined 'A Strange, Lonely and Troubling Death', was homophobic.
Ms Moir has defended herself by claiming that allegations her article was homophobic were 'mischievous' and that the reaction was a 'heavily orchestrated internet campaign'.
In the article, she claimed: '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.'
She also wrote: '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.'
An investigation by Spanish officials found that Mr Gately died of natural causes when he suffered a pulmonary oedema, an accumulation of fluid on the lungs.
2 comments:
I have not read Ms. Moir's article, so I cannot judge if it is homophobic or not. However, I too found Stephen Gately's death troublesome. According to news reports, he drowned in his own vomit. His death should be a clarion call to arms against binge drinking and alcohol abuse.
Reasonable people, too, might find it odd that either he, his partner, or both, invited another man back to their home for sex. This comes at a time, when we as gays and lesbians are demanding full legal recognition of our unions on par with straight marriage. The circumstances surrounding Gately's death should not be used against our demands. Still, I find it sad that as this young man was choking on his own vomit, the man who was committed to him, may have been having a toss in the hay with a near stranger close by!
But did they invite him back for sex? I think that is what everyone is upset about because its been assumed thats what they were doing.
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