“I’ve fought for fairness, equality of opportunity. I’ve battled to keep children’s hospitals open, community centres, hospices. But at a stroke, the system can kill you. Parliament. MPs. Lazily, and easily.”
This is part of the online response from James Mitchinson, the Editor of the Yorkshire Post to allegations that his paper “led to abuse” directed at former Yorkshire cricketer, Azeem Rafiq.
Rafiq told a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee that he’d been “driven out of the country” due to “threats and abuse” after he spoke out about racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club.
He told MPs that he was “fearing for his life.”
Furthermore, he stated that the Yorkshire Post “should be held responsible” for the abuse directed at him and his family ever since he reported the “institutional” racism at the club.
“Every time there’s an article it’s created a wave of online abuse,” he told the committee.
“I don’t feel like at any point they have had any balance. If I was to pick one reason why all this has happened, unfortunately I would have to say it is the Yorkshire Post’s writing.”
In a written statement to the Committee, Mitchinson stated:
“From a personal perspective, one that I was not afforded the privilege of airing to the DCMS, I know I will be able to look back with absolute conviction that on every step of the way, we as a team have sought to tell everyone’s truth when others have not given them that opportunity.
“I have to say, I am disappointed – but not surprised – that The Yorkshire Post’s brand of fearless journalism, editorially courageous even in the face of deeply contentious and complex issues, has been attacked by powerful people today.
“Those who believe in a free press, empowered to always get to the truth, should be deeply worried by the unsuccessful attempt to undermine The Yorkshire Post.
“Finally, I want to reassure Mr Rafiq that I could not have taken more ownership of nor applied more due diligence to editing this story, and I remain committed to listening to and telling all sides of it with honesty, integrity and impartiality.”
Chris Waters, the Post’s Cricket Editor wrote in the paper yesterday:
“I don’t want racism. I don’t want people being forced to leave the country. I don’t want threats made against them or their families. I don’t want people defecating in their gardens. I don’t want people circling their houses with what look like chains in their hands. I don’t want any of those things.
“And yet all of those consequences and more were laid at the door of The Yorkshire Post on Tuesday – and, by definition, at myself, the newspaper’s cricket correspondent – at the latest DCMS hearing into racism in cricket, where we/I were publicly denounced as ‘the voice of the racist’.”
He continued:
“George Dobell, the senior correspondent at The Cricketer, and also the chairman of the Cricket Writers’ Club, dismissed me as ‘out of my depth’ and said that we/I had ‘intimidated and bullied’ Rafiq and Lord Kamlesh Patel, the Yorkshire chairman, and made ‘no attempt to even try and understand’ the story.”
