The Press Complaints Commission has rejected a complaint against the New Statesman by Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.
He claimed that the magazine's review of a book about him contained an inaccuracy by mentioning "sexual assault charges."
Assange told the PCC: "I have not been charged with any offence and this statement therefore represents a significant and misleading inaccuracy."
He added that the review by James Ball of Andrew O'Hagan's "unauthorised autobiography" of Assange contributed to a "hostile media climate".
The PCC, in ruling against Assange, stated: "It was not in dispute that the complainant had not been formally charged by Swedish authorities." But the article "alluded to 'charges' more generally."
According the commission, this allusion accurately conveyed to readers that the complainant was being accused by Swedish prosecuting authorities of having committed the offences (and that prosecutors were seeking his extradition with a view to his potentially being tried for those offences).
The PCC wrote to the New Statesman's editor, Jason Cowley, to inform him that the complaint "raised no breach of the code of practice and did not require further investigation."
Sources: New Statesman/PCC ruling pdf
