LONDON — British tabloid newspaper The Sun breached media regulations with an article that said Queen Elizabeth II wanted Britain to leave the European Union, the country's press watchdog said Wednesday.
Buckingham Palace complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) about the front page article on March 9 headlined “Queen Backs Brexit.” The queen is supposed to be politically neutral.
Britain will hold a referendum on June 23 on whether to leave the 28-member alliance — dubbed Brexit. Polls have shown a close race for and against.
The Sun reported that two unnamed sources said the Queen criticized the EU at a lunch at Windsor Castle in 2011 and at a reception for lawmakers at Buckingham Palace “a few years ago.”
It said the queen told the then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that “the EU was heading in the wrong direction” and that she later told members of Parliament that she “did not understand Europe.”
“The headline was misleading, distorted, and unsupported by the text,” IPSO said in a statement about its decision.
The Sun had to publish the judgment under the headline “IPSO rules against Sun’s Queen headline.”
The newspaper said stood by its actions in an editorial Wednesday.
“Tabloid newspapers like The Sun have long made eye-catching assertions in headlines alongside a smaller headline to qualify or attribute them. It is a standard device,” it said.
“But IPSO decided it wasn’t right — though it had no problem with the story beneath it, about Her Majesty’s eurosceptic remarks which two impeccable sources confirmed. We stand by all of it.”
