• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / News Archive / Press watchdog launches probe into ‘offensive’ article

Press watchdog launches probe into ‘offensive’ article

By guest on 29th May 2010 Category: News Archive

Listen

The press watchdog has launched an investigation into a newspaper article in which journalist Janet Street-Porter describes depression as “the latest must-have accessory” for “trendy women”.

The article sparked a torrent of complaints from people with mental health conditions, both on the newspaper’s own website and to the Press Complaints Commission.

The disability charity RADAR described the article in the Daily Mail as “ignorant, offensive and damaging”.

The mental health charities Mind and Rethink and the anti-stigma campaign Time to Change wrote to the editor of the Daily Mail, describing the piece as “offensive in the extreme”.

In her article, Street-Porter says “the latest must-have accessory is a big dose of depression”, which she describes as “a relatively new ailment”.

She says that “at the moment, trendy women are allegedly suffering from ‘depression’, but back in the Nineties the biggest cause of sick leave was backache”.

She concludes: “Every day, loads of women get divorced, lose a loved one, give birth and find out they have a terminal disease.

“But, miraculously, 90 per cent of us don’t get depressed about it, don’t take special medication and don’t whinge about ‘black holes’. That’s life in the real world.”

A string of Mail readers who have experienced depression attacked Street-Porter on the newspaper’s website, accusing her of “prejudice”, and of being “ridiculously ignorant”, “small-minded” and “attention-seeking”.   

The Press Complaints Commission said it had received about 100 complaints and would be investigating her article.

RADAR said it felt compelled to respond to the article because it was “so ignorant, offensive and damaging”.

David Stocks, RADAR’s empowerment manager, who has bipolar disorder, said: “Try going into a hospital and speaking to a mental health patient about depression being trendy, and then you would see the stupidity of comments like these.”

Saying that rich celebrities should not have depression was “like stating that they should not get food poisoning or chicken pox: patently and utterly absurd”, said RADAR.

It said many people had kept their mental health conditions secret due to the “ever-present stigma” that was “perpetuated by the nonsense that has dribbled from Janet’s pen”.

No-one from the Daily Mail was available to comment.

Stephen Brookes, chair of the disabled members’ council of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said the article had “no basis in reality whatsoever”.

An NUJ motion at this week’s annual TUC disability conference – which was unanimously carried – attacked recent media coverage of mental health issues.

It called on the TUC to lobby the Society of Editors, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Office for Disability Issues to produce guidelines on reporting mental health issues.

20 May 2010

Share this post:

Share on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on RedditShare on LinkedIn
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Related

‘Muddled’ blue badge reforms ‘are to blame for renewal delays’
6th February 2015
UN debate will be reminder of true inclusive education
6th February 2015
IDS breaks pledge on PIP waiting-times, as tens of thousands still queue for months
30th January 2015

Primary Sidebar

On the left of the image are multiple heads of different colours - white, aqua, red, light brown, and dark green - all grouped together, then the words ‘Campaign for Disability Justice. Sign up to support. #OpportunitySecurityRespect’
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Access

Latest Stories

Government ignores warnings of new DWP deaths, and UN intervention, as MPs pass universal credit cuts bill

Urgent letter from UN to Labour government warns: We think your cuts continue Tory attack on disability rights

Race against time to secure DWP deaths evidence before parliament passes new benefit cuts bill

‘Complete shift in thinking’ needed on education of disabled children, says ALLFIE

Minister ignored concerns from disabled advisers, months before publishing cuts bill

Frustration after government only issues partial ban on new floating bus stops

Report suggests five big ideas that could transform disabled people’s mobility

My new book shows exactly why we need the disability movement, says disabled author

‘Disastrous’ cuts bill that leaves legacy of distrust and distress ‘must be dropped’

Four disabled Labour MPs stand up to government over cuts to disability benefits

Advice and Information

Readspeaker
A photograph shows an audience raising their hands in a BSL sign. The words say: 'BSL Conference 2025. The future starts with us. Leeds 17-18 July. Be part of shaping the future of Deaf cultures and identities. Get 10% off with BDA10'

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Bluesky
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web