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Sheridan sues Record over 'smear'
The Sunday Times
Sunday 20 May 2001 Sheridan sues Record over 'smear' THE leader of the Scottish Socialist party, Tommy Sheridan, plans to sue the Daily Record newspaper which he claims is leading a smear campaign against him and his party. Sheridan has instructed lawyers to begin an action for defamation against the Glasgow-based tabloid which formerly employed him as a columnist. The move follows a public falling-out between Sheridan and Record editor Peter Cox who has published a series of withering attacks on the MSP and has now banned any mention of him from the pages of the paper. Cox, who has held senior executive positions with The Sun, The Mirror and the New York Post, has a reputation as a pugnacious editor who revels in confrontation. Sheridan left the paper around the same time as Cox succeeded Martin Clarke as editor last September and his brand of ultra-left polemics were replaced with the more anodyne musings of David Whitton, a former spokesman for Donald Dewar. A series of hostile stories followed along with editorials, penned by Cox, which branded Sheridan a vain self-publicist and an irresponsible extremist. The Record attacked his involvement in the anti-nuclear demonstration at Faslane earlier this year but the criticism has been focused on his stance on drugs. Sheridan refused to back the Record's high-profile anti-drugs campaign. On the same day that 20,000 people joined its anti-drugs march last month, Sheridan organised a counter-demonstration, calling for cannabis to be legalised. He argued that the move would break the link between the widespread use of soft drugs and dealers in hard and deadly drugs. The Record has also attacked Sheridan's call for a maintenance programme for drug treatment, providing pharmaceutical heroin on prescription. A request from Sheridan for a public apology from the tabloid last week went unanswered. He has now asked his lawyers to start legal proceedings. A letter from Margaret Gribbon of Thomsons' solicitors in Glasgow, said: "While our client accepts and indeed welcomes constructive criticism of his political views, he does not and will not accept that his role in public life entitles your paper to suggest that he is morally bereft and corrupt." Sheridan, whose legal action is being supported by the National Union of Journalists, believes that the attacks on him are politically motivated. Sheridan has already written to the Press Complaints Commission but his complaints were rejected because they did not breach the terms of its code of conduct. NUJ Scottish organiser Paul Holleran said: "This is obviously a very personal and political campaign. We are unhappy that one of our members is being put in that position." Cox was unavailable for comment yesterday, and a spokesman for the paper had "no comment".
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