Fernanda Milan: Activism Works!

 “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Said Alice Walker, that has always been something activists bear in mind when they work for change.

On the 14^th of August last year, a Swedish friend of mine posted a newspaper article about a Guatemalan trans woman who had been through a terrible ordeal trying to seek asylum in Denmark from persecution in her home country.  After I read it, I felt so angry that the Danish Asylum Board had decided to send this woman, Fernanda Milan, back to Guatemala, on the 17^th of September, barely 5 weeks later, so I decided to translate the article into English and it was picked up by the LGBT Press around the world, even being retranslated into Spanish.

Various forms of activism both online, offline, through personal contacts using the new technology of social networking, the old technology of email, and positively antediluvian technology of the telephone, took place during that time. There were demonstrations in Copenhagen, in Madrid and here in London. The demonstration we held outside the Danish Embassy in Knightsbridge was effective. Denmark doesn’t get many demonstrations outside its embassies; indeed the last one anyone can remember was Muslims demonstrating against cartoons in a Danish newspaper in 2006. Our demonstration made it into EkstraBladet, the largest circulation tabloid in Denmark.

At the eleventh hour a message was received that the Danish Asylum Review Board had decided to grant Fernanda a stay of execution. Her case was reexamined and new representations were made. Information was collected from studies by the UN, the Organisation of American States and Oasis, the LGBT rights organization for which Fernanda had worked in Guatemala. They all confirmed how trans people in Guatemala are systematically murdered, and that Fernanda herself had had death threats from the police.

A few weeks later the Danish Asylum Board announced that it would now recognise as valid reasons for seeking asylum, persecution on the grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation. A couple of weeks after that on the 27^th November, they granted Fernanda Milan permanent leave to remain in Denmark, protected under the UN refugee convention.

The support organization, hastily put together in Denmark, called T-Refugee Project, to support her was, of course very happy with this result but they were still angry. In answer to why they are only announcing her victory today Stine Larsen of the T-Refugee Project said;

"We are very relieved that our struggle, together with Fernanda, ended in her being granted asylum. But it has been a soul-destroying asylum process with an initial refusal which was then reversed just three days before her scheduled deportation on 17 September 2012. Fernanda has needed time and space to recover from this ordeal. That's why we are only publicising the good news now."

Fernanda added; "I am very grateful to all the people who have helped me to fight, because in the end I could not have done it on my own."

Activism works, solidarity works. Trans people are now able to obtain asylum in Denmark, but the story does not end there. The reason Fernanda had problems was that she arrived and claimed asylum in one of the three countries that had opted out of the EU agreement to recognize persecution on the grounds of gender identity as a valid reason to claim asylum.  The two other countries to opt out of this agreement are the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. So far the UK government seems to have made no clear declaration either way on the issue of trans refugees. It is time they clarified their position.

If Fernanda Milan had been deported to Guatemala on the 17^th September, it is highly likely she would have been one of the 265 names we read out at the Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony on Nov 20^th.  There are no transgender people in Guatemala over the age of 35, they are all murdered by then, either by vigilantes, the police or because, excluded from education or work, they have to resort to sex work, which puts them in vulnerable positions. In the 6 weeks leading up to the 17^th September there were four recorded murders of trans people in Guatemala, in a population only around one and a half times the size of London. With the Guatemalan police looking for her, there is little doubt that by now she would have been a charred or dismembered corpse in a remote roadside ditch. Instead she is alive. She is only alive because of activism by trans people and their supporters.

It looks like the activism is not going to end there; the last word on this from Fernanda;

”I have been a transgender person all my life. And I have been fighting against prejudice as long as I remember. I had to flee from Guatemala because I was fighting for human rights. Now I have the chance to live my life as a woman and an activist. Now I want to keep on the fight for a better world, where everybody can be educated, work, create families and live a dignifying life regardless of their gender identity,”

Press Release from T-Refugee Project, Denmark

Press Release by the T-Refugee Project, Copenhagen, Denmark, Embargoed until;

First transgender person granted asylum in Denmark

In the Autumn of last year Transgender woman Fernanda Milán from Guatemala was refused asylum. But after protests from an asylum Initiative; the T-Refugee Project, and a number of individual campaigners, her case was reexamined by the asylum board and she was granted indefinite leave to remain in Denmark as an official refugee on the 26 November 2012, recognised under the UN Refugee Convention.

The T-Refugee Project is delighted that Fernanda Milán has now been granted asylum, but is angry that she was forced to go through lengthy and gruelling proceedings. Fernanda Milán was granted asylum on 26 November 2012, but did not want to publicise the news until now.

Stine Larsen, of the T-Refugee Project says:

"We are very relieved that our struggle, together with Fernanda, ended in her being granted asylum. But it has been a soul-destroying asylum process with an initial refusal which was then reversed just three days before her scheduled deportation on 17 September 2012. Fernanda has needed time and space to recover from this ordeal. That's why we are only publicising the good news now. "

Fernanda Milán added

"I am very grateful to all the people who have helped me to fight, because in the end I could not have done it on my own."

Even before Fernanda was granted asylum, there were signs that the campaign by asylum activists was going to succeed. Following a request from campaigner Søren Laursen the Refugee Board sent a letter stating that the Board will from now on consider persecution on the grounds of gender identity and sexuality relevant factors in any asylum case.

Søren Laursen believes that this case casts doubt on earlier refusals of asylum to trans people:

"Looking at the big picture, I am very pleased that there was so much focus on this case. As transgender asylum seekers are a highly overlooked group. There have only been a few trans cases before the Refugee Board the last twenty years, and they were all rejected. From what we know of them, I think there is reason to question those decisions. It is therefore very satisfying that there is now a case that has received a thorough examination and which has been successful. "

Fernanda at the forefront of the struggle.

With the success of Fernanda's asylum case, it has been determined that new policies in this area can permanently benefit transgender and LGB asylum seekers.

Stine Larsen says:

"Fernanda has been fighting from the front. She has been fighting for her own survival, but she has also fought for transgender asylum seekers who will come after her. We hope Fernanda's case means it will be easier for future transgender asylum seekers. "

"Fernanda was granted asylum according to the UN convention on refugees, because the decision in this case emphasised that she was individually and specifically persecuted on the basis of her gender identity.

"Fernanda Milán's own case afforded us a grim insight into Danish asylum policies. And she knows that asylum seekers can not necessarily count on fair treatment.

"UNHCR Refugee Convention status for other refugees is not necessarily guaranteed in the future, because I have been granted asylum. The Refugee Board's new policy was a step in the right direction, but I think it is important that activists hold them to it in future asylum cases, " says Fernanda Milán.

A victory for Danish activism

As well as being a victory for Fernanda's case and for transgender refugees, the positive outcome is also a victory for activism in Denmark.

Stine Larsen says:

"I do not think the Refugee Board would have granted Fernanda asylum if neither Søren Laursen, eminent researchers and other groups and individuals hadn't argued for asylum for transgender and gay, lesbian and bisexual people who risk persecution in their countries of origin. I think the change in the board's decision in Fernanda's case was due to the hard work of many different activists have put into the campaign for Fernanda. "

An international victory

The Refugee Board's policy change is also a victory for cooperation between activists across national borders. And it is a victory for international human rights bodies and groups like ILGA Europe and the UNHCR.

The T-Refugee Project believes that the other European countries that are lagging behind UN recommendations on asylum for gender and sexual minorities, ie. The UK and Ireland, should follow Denmark and change course, and extend their asylum criteria to include gender identity and sexual orientation.

"Now we hope that the door Fernanda has opened in Denmark will mean that the UK and Ireland also realise that persecution on the grounds of gender identity and sexuality are valid grounds for seeking asylum. We will keep closely watching what happens in the two countries in the future, "said Stine Larsen.

Natacha Kennedy, a campaigner for trans rights in the UK said "Fernanda's case shows clearly that activism works. Trans activists in the UK are particularly pleased with this result. Many trans people and trans allies supported Fernanda with action in the UK. Now the UK government needs to clarify its position on trans refugees."

Fernanda's future

Life is difficult for asylum seekers in Denmark. And transgender asylum seekers are some of the most marginalised. Fernanda once said that encountering Denmark was the worst 'blind date' ever. Now she has been granted asylum and is going to live her life in Denmark.

The T-Refugee Project is a group campaigning for Denmark to comply with Refugee Convention recommendations on gender and sexuality.

FOR more information

T-Refugee Project: t.refugee @ gmail.com / www.tlounge.dk / trefugee

Facebook: T-Refugee Project / Save Fernanda Milan

The Refugee Board's response to Søren Laursen:

http://panbloggen.wordpress.com/2012/10/26/lgbt-flygtninge-nyt-statusvalg/

Demonstration in Copenhagen: 'Asylum for Fernanda Milán' manifestation

Demonstration in Madrid:

https://www.facebook.com/events/179424342182357/

UNHCR: Refugee protection: A Guide to International Refugee Law p 43

UNHCR: About the concerns of LGBT asylum seekers in the beneficiary states: http://www.unhcr.org/505b27336.html

ILGA: http://www.ilga-europe.org/home/guide/country_by_country/denmark/fernanda_milan

The UN Human Rights Committee: About LGBT conditions in countries of origin: http://www.ecoi.net/file_upload/1930_1340012793_ccpr-c-gtm-co-3-en.pdf

PRESS PHOTOS

Press photos can be purchased from the T-Refugee Project photographer.

The T-Refugee PROJECT AND FERNANDA -THE BACKGROUND

Fernanda Milán fled Guatemala after including being attacked and threatened by the police. She has for many years lived as a transgender person and worked for transgender rights in Guatemala.

In protest against the initial rejection of Fernanda's asylum application by the Refugee Board, activists formed a support group called the T-Refugee Project. In September Stine Larsen, one of the activists in the T-Refugee Project said that the Fernanda Milan asylum case was full of errors:

"Fernanda Milan's case does not take sufficient account of the fact that her work for transgender rights means that she is in imminent danger of being individually persecuted in Guatemala."

According to information from the T-Refugee Project there have previously been three transgender asylum-seekers in Denmark. They were all  refused asylum, like many homosexuals.

FACTS: REFUGEES THE COMMISSION CONSIDERS THAT GENDER IDENTITY MAY BE A CRITERION FOR ASYLUM

UNHCR (the UN refugee commission) recommends member states, and thus Denmark take into account that gender identity can be a cause of persecution and thus criteria for asylum. Until September 2012, Denmark did not adopt these recommendations but the positive outcome of Fernanda's asylum case demonstrated that gender identity and sexuality can now be recognised as an aspect of the legal acknowledgement of this social group.

FACTS: ABOUT TRANSGENDER PEOPLE

Being transgender means to have a gender identity that does not match the body you were born with. For example, Fernanda Milán identifies as a woman, but was born with a male body. Being transgender is not a sexual orientation like hetero- or homosexuality. Transgender people's sexual identity be both eg hetero- or homosexual.

An open (hearted) letter to Suzanne Moore

Dear Suzanne,

Like Paris Lees, I am a long-term admirer of you and your writing. Your articles have always been a breath of fresh air and often helped me understand that it is the world that is mad not me. So everything Paris wrote in her open letter to you, goes for me too.

Getting to the point, I would like to ask you to reconsider you tweet about suing Pinknews. Not only is there nothing you could possibly sue them for but you might help silence one of the few places where the murders of trans people around the world get reported in this country.

I have to declare an interest here; I am one of the team that organises the London International Transgender Day of Remembrance. I have volunteered to do it, despite heavy work committmemnts pulling me in other directions, because it is the only way we can bring people's attention to the obscene numbers of trans people being murdered around the world, and especially in Latin America. The Transgender Day of Remembrance this year saw such an increase in numbers that, for the first time we had to stop lighting real candles and use battery-powered ones because the smoke pollution they were causing in the room.

We also worked hard to find Spanish and Portuguese speakers who are trans, so that we can get right the pronuncuation of the names of the dead people. Finding trans people who can speak Portuguese proved difficult even in cosmopolitan London, but we found two who soldiered bravely through the 124 names until they were both overcome with emotion. I know it doesn't seem a difficult thing to do; read out a list of names, but I was one of the readers two years ago when there were "only"180 names altogether (there were 265 worldwide this time), I managed to get through without crying but wept almost uncontrolably afterwards. Believe it or not it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Every name could have been me or my friends.

The reason why we keep this tradition going, and it has been going since 1998, is to keep alive the memories of our sisters and brothers who have been killed for being just like us. The world needs to know about this, we are a small and relatively powerless minority, even more so in global terms, so all we can uselfully do is bring it to people's attention, which is what TDoR is about.

So I want to ask, please, please do not make this about you. It is not about you, and no-one could ever read into the Pink News article that the death of Cecilia Marahouse is going to have any connection, however tentative, with you. However the fact that she has been murdered needs to be got out there. As far as we are concerned, any publicity about this issue is good publicity, but now is the time to allow the real story to be heard, that is the only way we will ever be able to bring pressure on governments in Latin America to change their ways. Work is under way already but it is difficult.

I recently met Mariela Castro who has worked hard for trans rights in Cuba, she is trying to spread understanding of trans issues throughout Latin America; she has recently started to make some tentative inroads with the Guatemalan government for example. But these governments will not listen to her without international pressure, and with the World Cup next year and Olympics two years after that, there are fears of an even greater bloodbath than that which trans people currently experience in Brazil.

We feel angry about the murders and at the same time powerless to stop them, but we are using whatever tiny influence and leverage we can find to stop out brothers and sisters form dying. Last year a young transwoman was tortured to death by a mob of 400 people in La Paz, Bolivia; plenty of others were killed in religious-style stonings across Latin America.

So please make this about them, not you. This is not about getting one back on you, this is about charred bodies in remote ditches, it is about drive-by shootings, it is about bodies of teenagers with multiple stab wounds or bullet holes, it is about religious-style stonings.

A constructive response on your part would also restore your reputation conmsiderably, especially amongst trans people and our supporters.


Yours sincerely,

Natacha Kennedy

Thicker Skins

I am one of the lucky ones; I can afford to live in a relatively safe area of London, so I spend a considerable part of my - no doubt  by Toby Young's standards - paltry salary on a huge mortgage and two hours a day getting to and from work. This is because the area of London where I work, although having a plentiful supply of relatively cheap and comfortable accommodation, is dangerous for me. How do I know? I work there.

Numerous times I have been thankful that there are plenty of other people waiting on my platform at the station, as someone has acosted me and started haranguing me; I have been called everything from a "fucking tranny" to a "fucking dyke". At one time when I was waiting for a bus on the main road a mob of people started shouting things at me of a similar nature, and making threats. I was fortunate that a black cab went past after a few moments and I jumped in in order to get away. I don't know what would have happened if I had not done so.

This does not mean I have not received transphobic harrassment in West Hampstead where I live, Cornered once on a station platform with only one exit a large, threatening man tried to attack me, and once again I was only saved by the arrival of a train full of people. I have been folowed by people in the street, on one occasion a man tried to creep up behind me at the top of my street, for what purpose I do not know, can imagine. screaming at him in a loud voice and waking up many of my neighbours, to whom I later appologised profusely was the only way he was frightened off. I was threatened while waiting for a bus outside a tube station in East London in broad daylight once and harrassment and intimidation of a verbal kind is a weekly occurence so much now that I almost do not notice it. The only thing I have noticed is how the "I'm a Laydee" wits have generally disappeared since the BBC stopped repeats of Little Britain.

I am also in the position of having to do part of my job in a cisgender male appearance, because that element, supervising students on placement, is not covered by any anti-discrimination legislation, including the "all-encompassing" Equality Act.

Clearly I have not been doing things right. The wisdom of Toby Young, who must know everything about being trans, after all he's a journalist for the Sun) clearly dictates that I should grow a "thicker skin". I must admit to being perplexed at this advice. I must be doing something wrong and I can't see how a thicker skin is going to help me overcome the harrassment I recieve at the hands of those who have been driven to hate me by the media's cumulitive negative stereotyping of trans people.

OK so Young argues that you cannot "prove' that the media causes transphobic hate crime, but this is legalistic disingenuousness. You can't prove that school uniform improves discipline of attainment in school, but Toby Youn's "free" school has one.

So perhaps Toby Young could advise me on these points. I wuld love to be able to live colser to work and not become a victim of hate-crime. How thick will my skin need to be to protect me from a knife, a gun or a hate-fuelled mob.

Putting Words into our Mouths

As the dust from the Burchill transphobic article starts to settle it is time to step back a bit and look a little more closely at some of the untruths that have been said for trans people by others. In this case, in addition to Burchill, the almost as unedifying ‘intellect’ of Toby Young; the bone-headed tribal Tory reactionary journalist who stepped in to champion her cause...

There are the obvious and sickening insults from Burchill; deliberately provocative and reminiscent of some bad racist propaganda I got hold of at an Anti-Nazi League demo ages ago. But her diatribe of mindless working-class Tory bigotry (is there any other kind of working-class Tory bigotry?) also concealed an interesting, and rather nasty twist, which probably went unnoticed but which may turn out to be more significant than the more obvious stuff.

This was her deliberate misrepresentation or deliberate “misunderstanding” of the word “cisgender”. The way she presented us as using it as a kind of anti cisgender insult “syph, cyst, cistern.” Suggests that this represents one of the ways TERFs like her are going to try and misrepresent us. The fact that she suggested that “cis” is a term only used to describe women, is, of course not true, yet I have had a number of cisgender women friends contact me in recent days saying they don’t want to be called “cis” thinking that it is some kind of anti-feminist insult, which of course it is not.

A blatant attempt to deny us an important element of our vocabulary represents epistemological violence against trans people and aims to misrepresent what we say in an attempt to drum up transphobic hatred through promoting misunderstanding. It is an attempt to deny us the words with which to talk about out lives and our experiences. This is something we must watch out for. It is sometimes difficult to understand but people who have considered themselves “normal” and “unmarked” actually do find it uncomfortable to find someone else attaching a label to them. I’m not sure how many heterosexual people like the term “straight” for example. Unfortunately TERFs running round deliberately trying to make out that we are using it as a misogynistic insult is something only too true to type for these individuals; in the end since they have so little ammunition with which to attack us, they will use what they can…

Of course Burchill’s attempt to do this is probably unlikely to have much effect since it was associated with so much obvious bile, but Toby Young’s piece in support of her, and, for that matter from some other journalists, is more subtle. As such more dangerous, and not just for us but for other minorities that it is still not socially unacceptable to have a go at, Romany travellers, Chavs, genuine feminists, red-headed people, disabled people etc…

His argument is the “offence” argument, an old chestnut that needs to be exposed for what it is. The stock in trade, standard issue argument for right-wing journalists trying to silence others critiques of their own bad practice and unacceptable (and usually bigoted) views. The argument is that they should have the right to cause “offence”. Let us be very clear about this. Toby Young is using a what is in my view a thoroughly dishonest argument. He is telling everyone that we are against Burchill’s article because it caused us to be “offended”. This is a serious and disingenuous misrepresentation; I am “offended” almost every time I look at a news site, I am certainly offended every time I look at any newspaper that Young writes for, but I am of the opinion that the Burchill article should not have been published for entirely different reasons, and I believe Toby Young knows this but still chooses to misrepresent our views.

I am protesting against this article, and others like it by Richard Littlejohn for example, not because I am “offended”, but because they legitimize transphobic hatred. They make it OK for those people in the street who shout at you, to call me ‘mate’, ‘fucking tranny’, ‘I’m a Laydee’ or any other clever witticisms. It makes it OK for groups of young men to threaten me in the street, it makes it OK for men in cars to stalk me to my door at night because they want to have sex with a “TV”, like they have seen on porn sites. It makes it legit for men to try and chat me up when I’m walking home from the Tube at midnight; a scary experience because you don’t know what they want. And it makes it OK for schools to say; no, we don’t want your kind visiting our premises and “confusing” our kids.

Toby Young’s deliberate disingenuousness is easier to pick out but no less dangerous. If journalists can justify incitement to hate crime by simply describing it as the right to “offend” then almost anything becomes possible, including groups of people being “mandated out of existence.”

So, in addition to calling Burchill on her bigotry we need to call both her and Young on deliberate and dishonest misrepresentation. It is a classic right-wing bigot’s tactic in the absence of any genuine argument. We need to make sure it is a tactic that fails.

Every School A Crammer.

The recent slump in teacher morale documented by a YouGov poll published a few days ago represents a severe indictment of Michael Gove’s education policies. Largely the extreme logical conclusion of a quarter of a century’s education policies his policies started with Margaret Thatcher’s 1988 Education Act and were carried on by a Blairite government too timid to change them.

These right-wing education policies have continuously relied on assertions that applying toytown market reductionism and simplistic MBA-style solutions to schools will achieve improvements. The problem for those advocating these right-wing policies is that they have almost always relied on unsupported declarations and failed to include any serious data or even arguments to support their claims.

Now everything is starting to fall apart, the core of Gove’s policies; fragmentation through academies and “free” schools, top-down imposition of performance-related-pay, greater centralization of the curriculum, giving heads too much power, abandoning initial teacher education and over-reliance on exams and testing. The head of Ofsted’s idiotic comment "If anyone says to you that 'staff morale is at an all-time low' you know you are doing something right." Is now threatening to make him look even more out of touch than his boss.

The problem is that as teacher morale decreases (and resulting industrial action increases) the status of teaching decreases and this hits recruitment and retention of teachers. Already, despite a severe shortage of jobs for graduates and young people, recruitment is starting to suffer, and disillusionment of teachers is falling.

The problem has been that pretty much every right-wing education initiative imposed on schools since May 2010 has been based on untested assumptions, or even, in some cases, assumptions for which there is significant evidence to the contrary – such as “free” schools.

Just one example of such an assertion is the claim by Teach First that sending barely-trained graduates into schools for a couple of years while they wait for a job to come up in banking or accountancy will “raise the status of teaching”. Brett Wigdortz, the head of Teach First has repeatedly made this assertion but has never supplied any justification for it. Indeed he has never even supported it with any serious argument, never mind any data. The decline on the status of teaching associated with the figures for teacher morale now gives lie to his vacuous assertions, repeated, Goebbels fashion to make them true.

This reflects one of the defining features of those advocating right-wing education policies has traditionally been the substitution of anecdotes for data, and unsupported assertion for actual evidence; something which runs through the entire New Educational Establishment (NEE) from Katherine Birbalsingh and Toby Young to Joel Klein and Michael Wilshaw.

In fact the British NEE is but a subsection of the GERM (Global Educational Reform Movement) as Pasi Sahlberg has Christened it; a barely-disguised corporate-run Astroturf movement dedicated to educational privatization, increased testing, and subjecting children to greater regimentation and conformity. Yet it uses the language of educational improvement to disguise a reduction in educational quality for our children.

Every school a crammer, is now the effective policy, one that was probably inevitable from the start of the current right-wing education “reforms” in 1988. Ofsted used to say that, “if pupils are not learning, teachers are not teaching.” Well this logic has now come full circle. Dr Tony Wagner has shown how rote memorization of test answers has effectively replaced real learning, and Prof. Paul Dowling and Prof Andrew Brown’s research in secondary schools has shown that many secondary school children now regard the curriculum as little more than a ticket to the next level, like a computer game. Learning has been replaced by information to be memorized for exams but useless for anything else and soon forgotten. The children in our schools learn nothing more than to pass exams and schools have become adept at producing good exam results without actually teaching the children anything useful.

So what is the motivation behind the GERM? The cat was let out of the bag by a Tea-Party pundit during the American election who admitted that people are more likely to vote Republican the wealthier they become, but that this is reduced significantly if they are well educated. The problem is that the more educated people are the better able they are to see through the unsupported assertions, hyperbole, propaganda and outright lies of right-wing parties.

The problem is that no-one is going to win any election by telling people they are going to make education worse, so a systematic dumbing-down of educational has to be dressed up as educational improvement, with the full force of the right-wing propaganda machine behind it. Some people have suggested that it is Gove’s background as a journalist that has resulted in him being given an easy ride by the media. This is probably an oversimplification. They are doing it because they need to maintain the myths upon which his policies are based in the face of considerable evidence on the ground to the contrary.

Initial response from PCC re: Transphobe Littlejohn story

The concerns you have raised relate directly to Miss Lucy Meadows the subject of the story. Given the nature of the story, it appears that it would be difficult for the Commission to investigate or understand this matter fully without her involvement. In addition, the outcome of a Commission investigation (whether correction, apology or adjudication, for example) would need her approval. In such circumstances, we would generally require a complaint from Miss Lucy Meadows or her representative, in order to take the matter forward.

It appears that we would have difficulty in pursuing this matter. However, if you believe that there are exceptional public interest reasons for the Commission to proceed with an independent complaint under the circumstances, we would be grateful to hear from you in the next ten days. 

Once we have heard from you, the Commission will be asked whether it wishes to take the complaint forward. If you would like to discuss your case before replying please do contact us.  If we hear no more from you we will close our file on the matter.

If, at the end of the process, you are dissatisfied with the manner in which your complaint has been handled, you should write within one month to the Independent Reviewer who will investigate the matter and report any findings and recommendations to the Commission. For further details please use the following link: http://www.pcc.org.uk/about/whoswho/independentreview.html

A copy of the Code of Practice which all newspapers and magazines who subscribe adhere to, can be accessed using this web link:http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/practice.html

Peter Wright, who was until the end of March 2012 editor of The Mail on Sunday, is currently a member of the Press Complaints Commission.  However, as the Daily Mail, the sister newspaper of the Mail on Sunday, is the subject of your complaint he will not take part in any discussion or consideration of the complaint by the Commission.