Okay, so here it is: Further to our earlier posts regarding the photos that Emily took on election night, twittered on the @justdoitfilm account, and then found reproduced, with out her consent or knowledge, and with no attempt to contact her, by the Mail Online. [check out our earlier blog here]
This week, Alex Bannister, ‘Group Managing Editor’ at The Mail sent Emily an email. It was marked in bold capital letters “PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL”, and since we believe manners are everything, we decided that it was only respectful to honor his wishes, and so we wont tell you about the apology he gave.
Alex wanted to talk turkey, and asked Emily to ring. She did.
He made her an offer, she said she wanted an apology, and one that she could quote them on. They said they’d have to get back to her. When they did, the public apology wasn’t forth-coming. Emily told them that she thought it would be in their interest to undo the damage that Elliots email had done to their reputation, but they remained adamant that they would not make a public statement.
Nor will they pay out on the agreed settlement if we tell you how much it is. Let’s just say it’s not the full amount she asked for, but it much more than the £40 that Elliot first offered, in the email in which he claimed the photos posted on twitter where ‘in the public domain’ and so free game.
After much cajoling from Emily, Alex did agree that we could tell you that “the Mail acknowledges that they must, strike that, do respect the copyright of photographers”, but asks us to understand that in a busy on-line news environment, some times things just happen.
Well let’s hope that this doesn’t happen again Alex, who protested vehemently that this was by no means a common occurrence for them.
We can assure you that Emily made sure that the message was heard about manners, and helpfully pointed out that it takes but a few seconds to send a message to the poster of photos on twitter. After all, everybody else did.
They got off very lightly indeed. No true public appology is a gret shame for them
With great respect :~) I think manners in this case can be loosened a little – if an organisation behaves in such an ill-mannered way as DM has, then goes on to compund that poor behaviour by refusing to make a public apology, yet still expects to be treated with respect in terms of you keeping to their request for their correspondence to be kept private, I disagree that manners necessarily requires you to keep to this.
To me, it’s simply expecting too much! But as I try to be a polite chap, I will of course make no more of a fuss about it than this.
Despite my wee gripe, well done on all of this.
Cheers,
MikeMcG,
Wirral.
Great shame for the paper that they could not bring themselves to do the decent thing and apologise. Clearly shows that Emily has principles as she has not retaliated by printing details of the e-mail they sent. Good for you! Its sad you have been treated so shamefully.