41.
Mr Newton Dunn said that he gave Mr Elphicke a fair appraisal of the story and asked
for his thoughts and he provided the quotation detailed in the article. It is apparent
that there was no email communication between Mr Newton Dunn and Mr Elphicke.
There are no notes or records of the conversation between Mr Newton Dunn and Mr
Elphicke because Mr Newton Dunn said that he typed Mr Elphicke’s response into the
draft article. I accept that Mr Newton Dunn typed Mr Elphicke’s response into the
draft article. However it is more difficult to know what information was provided by
Mr Newton Dunn to Mr Elphicke because of the absence of notes and because Mr
Newton Dunn said, and I accept, that he had no clear recollection of the conversation.
The evidence shows and I find that Mr Elphicke was not provided with a copy of the
Dream Troll image. It is apparent from the terms of Mr Elphicke’s response, and I
find, that he must have been told by Mr Newton Dunn that the band had produced an
image which used Nazi iconography. I find that Mr Elphicke was not told that the
Dream Troll image was based on the Black Sabbath album cover. I make this last
finding because Mr Newton Dunn had not taken any account of the hashtag Black
Sabbath and had not made the connection with the Black Sabbath album cover or had
it pointed out to him at that time. It was in these circumstances that Mr Elphicke said
that “it shows terrible misjudgement for Richard Burgon to associate himself with
anyone who appears to enjoy Nazi iconography like this”.
42.
Mr Newton Dunn said the email sent at 1608 hours was to the online news desk and at
that point he had not heard back from Mr Burgon or the Labour party. Mr Newton
Dunn believed that the copy that he provided for the print version would have been
the same as for the online version, but he said, and I accept, that the print version is
usually sub-edited into a shorter version for space reasons.
43.
At 1712 hours Mr Fraser emailed Mr Newton Dunn with the comment about the
Black Sabbath album. As appears above this must have been after the conversation
between Mr Newton Dunn and Mr Elphicke. Mr Newton Dunn said he heard back
from Mr Fraser at 1712 hours and looked at the hyperlink provided to the Black
Sabbath album cover, but said it did not change his views about Mr Burgon’s
judgement.
44.
Mr Newton Dunn responded by email at 1716 hours (it is common ground that the
time of 1816 hours showing on Mr Fraser’s copy of the email was because Mr Fraser
was in a different time zone in Italy) saying “it’s still Nazi iconography, is it not, to
use the SS symbol and German military font in the band’s name”. Mr Burgon said he
was distressed to hear of that response and he noted that when it was published there
was an absence of any reference to Black Sabbath in the online article.
45.
Mr Newton Dunn offered to include a quotation from Mr Burgon. Mr Fraser then
emailed a quotation from Mr Burgon which was that he had grown up in Leeds with
members of the band and had known some of them since they were teenagers and
which made it clear that members of Dream Troll had no Nazi or racist affiliations. It
is apparent that the article was then altered to include the quotation which appeared in
the online and hard copy articles.
46.
The article submitted by Mr Newton Dunn was not altered to include any reference to
Black Sabbath. I make this finding because the reference to Black Sabbath was not in