Jan Moir and the PCC

The PCC has finally reached its decision over the Jan Moir column about the death of Steven Gately of Boyzone that raised more than 25,000 complaints from outraged readers (we'll ignore the possibility that many of them weren't actually Daily Mail readers, or at least not until the article was pointed out to them on Twitter).
The Daily Mail (regularly in the top ten of complained of newspapers desite its editor in chief Paul Dacre chairing the committe that writes the code the PCC uses to measure complaints) specialises in controversial columns written from a traditional conservative viewpoint and this one was no exception.
The 25,000 complaints left the PCC with a problem: it doesn't take complaints from third parties, that is from people not actually involved in the story. Fortunately for the PCC (or perhaps that is unfortunately) Gately's civil partner Andrew Cowle rode to the rescue by submitting a complaint that the article was inaccurate, intruded into private grief and was discriminatory.
The PCC rejected the allegations of inaccuracy saying "there was no inaccuracy or misleading statement here". Discrimination quickly followed as while the commission was "uncomfortable with the tenor of the article" it did not consider it to be homophobic: "it was not possible to identify any direct uses of pejorative or prejudicial language". But it was the publication of matter involving personal grief that was the major issue. On this point the commission accepted that "timing of the piece was questionable to say the least" and that it had caused the complainant great distress, yet despite this they agreed that a "slide towards censorship" was not something they could endorse.
This is an interesting interpretation of a code that says journalists should handle publication sensitively in cases involving personal grief. Because Gately was a public figure and his death a matter of public discussion the intrusion into grief was acceptable. But because the PCC has always refused to rule on matters of taste and decency and has always avoided adjudicating on opinion columns this actually makes it a little more difficult for them. On the basis of freedom of expression, of course, the Moir column is perfectly legitimate journalism. It is her opinion and she is entitled to it and to publish it if a newspaper will provide the space. What is more difficult to justify is an invasion into private grief, the one thing on which the PCC is supposed to adjudicate.
So while it is a win for freedom of expression and its associated right to offend, it is also another example of the PCC at its most ineffectual.