| Submit your comments on this article |
| Britain |
| Daily Mirror Editor sacked over ’hoax’ pictures |
| 2004-05-14 |
| Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan is sacked following pressure over faked photos of soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner. The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment earlier told a press conference the Mirror had to apologise for running the pictures and endangering British troops. A statement from the Mirror said it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax". The Mirror board said it would be "inappropriate" for Morgan to continue. Speaking to journalists on Friday morning, Morgan had been bullish, saying he would not resign. But in a news conference in Preston on Friday afternoon, the regiment demonstrated to reporters the aspects of uniform and equipment which it said proved the photographs were fake. Colonel Black, a former regiment commander, said the pictures put lives in danger and acted as a "recruiting poster" for al-Qaeda. The regiment’s Brigadier Geoff Sheldon said the vehicle featured in the photographs had been located in a Territorial Army base in Lancashire and had never been in Iraq. He said the QLR’s reputation had been damaged by the Mirror and asked the newspaper to apologise because the evidence they were staged was "overwhelming". |
| Posted by:Howard UK |