The UK Sun unpublished an article written on information from 2007 characterizing British manor as a “sink estate,” The Guardian reported.
The article claimed that Sheffield’s Manor was “the worst in Europe” and set for demolition, according to The Guardian and The Star.
Sheffield Council leader Julie Dore complained to The Star that the “This awful sink estate term that the Prime Minister uses is something from the 1980s and no area in Sheffield was planned for this type of demolition.”
Dore added that she wanted an apology, telling The Star “I’m very pleased that it’s been taken down. I’d expect a sincere apology from the reporter who wrote the piece and from the editor.” The Sun article also wrongly indicated that the reporter actually went to Sheffield’s Manor.
(According to UK Housing Wikia, “sink estate” is “a British council housing estate characterised by high levels of economic and social deprivation.”)
The Sun’s spokesperson told iMediaEthics “newspapers unpublish articles all the time.” The Sun said “On this occasion the MP is just making trouble for us and I have nothing to add on what’s in the Guardian only to point out again that it was a Labour MP and former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party who described the Manor Estate as Britain’s worst.”
The Sun’s spokesperson told The Guardian that the web-only article was “written by a junior and inexperienced journalist who wrongly chose to use archive information without checking recent developments on the Manor estate,” and who is no longer reporting online. Further, the Sun conceded the article was “wrong.”
According to the Guardian, the “worst in Europe” was a 1995 quote from Sheffield local and former Parliament member from the Labour party Roy Hattersley.
iMediaEthics has written to Dore and Sheffield MP Paul Blomfield for comment on the Sun’s article and unpublishing.