Complaint
This online article reported that Harvey Marcelin, who had served more than 50 years in prison in the USA for killing two people, now faced a further murder charge for a killing carried out since her release.Β A reader complained that the article failed to make clear that Marcelin had only recently begun to identify as female, and had identified as male at the time of the previous murders.Β The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔβs editorial standards of accuracy.
Outcome
In the ECUβs view the omission of this information may have given readers an incomplete understanding of the murderer and their crimes (particularly because gender had been cited as a factor in an earlier parole board hearing) and fell below the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔβs standards of accuracy.Β The ECU noted, however, that a line explaining that Marcelin βrecently identified as a womanβ had been added to subsequent versions of the article, and considered this sufficient to ensure readers understood Marcelin was male when committing the earlier murders.Β Accordingly, it found that the issue of complaint had been resolved.
Resolved