A Guardian-sized apology to The Sun

By Tim Montgomerie
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Tuesday's papers were a nightmare for The Sun with most titles accusing the Wapping tabloid of hacking into Gordon Brown's son's medical records. The story first appeared in The Guardian and was repeated by the former Prime Minister.  The Sun was able to prove that its source for the story about Fraser Brown actually came from a legitimate source and that Mrs Brown hadn't objected to them reporting the story. The Sun gets an apology today from The Guardian... on page 32...

The full text of the apology is:

"Articles in the Guardian of Tuesday 12 July incorrectly reported that the Sun newspaper had obtained information on the medical condition of Gordon Brown's son from his medical records. In fact the information came from a different source and the Guardian apologises for its error (The Brown files: How Murdoch papers targeted ex-PM's family, 12 July, page 1; When Brown decided that the Sun was out to destroy him politically, 12 July, page 2)."

I'm not sure The Sun can complain, of course. When it's treated people badly it has also buried its apologies. If newspapers were forced to give equal prominence to apologies as to original, offending stories they might be more careful in the first place.