A COMPLAINT against the Craven Herald issued to newspaper regulator IPSO by a former principal of Craven College has been dismissed.

The paper, which had used the ‘they’ pronoun and ‘Mx’ title in a story dated February 16, this year, about a college principal who identifies as non-binary, did not discriminate in doing so, the press watchdog has ruled.

IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) found in favour of the publication after it reported Lindsey Johnson, who had been absent for some months – and has since left their employment at the college – “presents as non-binary using the pronouns ‘they’ and ‘them’ and the title, Mx.”

Complaining under Clause 3 (Harassment) and Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, the former principal claimed the use of inverted commas when referring to their pronouns inferred that there was some kind of issue with their gender identity, as it was not otherwise relevant to the story.

Denying a breach of Code, the Craven Herald accepted that there was no need for references to their pronouns to be placed within inverted commas, but said the gender identity reference had been used so as to avoid any confusion about the story’s use of “they” and “them” pronouns.

IPSO noted that quotation marks can be used for a variety of reasons and did not agree that the use of quotation marks was necessarily intended or would be understood in the way the principal suggested.

In circumstances where Lindsey Johnson’s preferred pronoun was included in the story together with an explanation to assist readers’ understanding, and where the committee considered that the use of quotation marks was ambiguous in meaning, it did not conclude that the quotation marks had been used in a prejudicial or pejorative way.

The complaint was not upheld.

The full adjudication can be read at ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=16777-23