The Sun acts responsibly in reporting terror

Your article (Mainstream media helping radicalisation, says Met’s anti-terror boss, 21 March) suggested that the Sun “rushed” to upload clips of the footage filmed by the gunman in the horrific attack in Christchurch last week.

Quite apart from the implication that we were acting irresponsibly in doing so, the failure to explain to your readers that we did not show any clips of violence creates a misleading impression that we published graphic video of shootings or propaganda.

Furthermore, the article fails to note that Brendan Cox – who co-founded Survivors Against Terror – praised our front page last Sunday as a “model of how terror should be covered” and that TellMama, a group which campaigns against hate crime, highlighted that day’s Sun coverage of the attack as “really positive”. It also fails to acknowledge that we called the gunman a “terrorist” as soon as the attack occurred, unlike the Guardian.

We recognise our responsibilities as Britain’s biggest commercial news organisation with regard to reporting terror.
Andy Silvester
Head of PR and leader writer, the Sun