STAMMMA V DAILY MAIL: IPSO DECISION

A Dark Day for Disability Rights in the UK Press

STAMMA is profoundly disappointed by IPSO’s decision not to uphold our complaint against the Daily Mail. By ruling that the mockery of a speech disability is acceptable under the guise of "satire," the regulator has effectively green-lit the ridicule of the 1% of the population who stammer.

The Failure of the Regulator The Daily Mail article did not merely report on Professor Piers Forster’s evidence; it used his stammer as a central comic device. References to a "full Fish Called Wanda job" and descriptions of him "fighting with a particular consonant" were not "painting a picture" of proceedings—they were an exercise in humiliation.

IPSO’s decision to prioritise "freedom of expression" and the "right to shock" over the protections afforded by Clause 12 (Discrimination) is a significant step backwards. Clause 12 exists to protect individuals from prejudicial and pejorative references to disability. If an article that compares a disabled person’s speech to a what many regard as a stigmatising 1980s film trope, is not "pejorative," it is difficult to see what is.

Satire vs. Mockery We fundamentally reject the Committee’s acceptance of the Daily Mail’sdefence that this was legitimate satire. True satire targets power, agency, and political failings. Mocking a physical characteristic that an individual cannot change is not satire—it is the definition of a "pejorative reference" to a disability.

The Real-World ImpactThis ruling has consequences beyond Westminster. Every day, people who stammer face being hung up on, laughed at, or excluded from public life. When a major national newspaper mocks a senior academic for how he speaks, it sends a clear message to every child who stammers: your voice is a joke, and the law will not protect you.

Our CommitmentSTAMMA will not accept that "freedom of expression" includes the right to dehumanise people with disabilities. We will continue to challenge the media industry to move past these prehistoric attitudes. A stammer is simply how some people talk—it is not a punchline ".

We call on editors to look beyond the letter of this flawed ruling and honour the spirit of the Editors’ Code by treating all individuals with the basic dignity they deserve.