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Shayma Bakht's claims were "inaccurate", "mistaken" and "wrong": The Times finally backs down and publishes retractions of Bakht's sperm donor article

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Above are screenshots of two retractions that The Times have published over the last 24 hours. One is from the online edition, and the other is from the Scottish version of the print edition, which is where Shayma Bakht's wildly inaccurate article originally appeared. In them, the newspaper admits that several of Bakht's claims were false.  Firstly, The Times admits Bakht was "wrong" to claim that I "refused women non-physical methods of insemination in 2017". This was one of the most bizarrely-worded lies I've ever seen in a British newspaper.  Secondly, The Times admits that Bakht made other "inaccurate" statements about my activities as a donor, which have now been deleted from the online version of the article.  Thirdly, The Times admits that Bakht was "wrong" and "mistaken" in claiming that it is illegal for donors to charge money over and above travel expenses. (This was an allegation that was not specifically dire
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Do the media think only the wealthy have the right to reproduce?

On Saturday night I recorded an interview about my experiences as a sperm donor for the Stephen Nolan show on BBC Radio 5 Live, and it was broadcast a few hours ago.  It can be listened to on catch-up at this link from about 39 minutes onwards.  (I don't really sound like Darth Vader's sinister Scottish cousin, by the way - they heavily disguised my voice at my own request, just in case anyone I know in real life happened to be casually listening in.)  I think Stephen Nolan felt at a few points that I was becoming unreasonably impatient with him - he kept saying "this is not an aggressive interview!", although to a hardened political interrogator such as himself, a non-aggressive interview is probably just one from which the interviewee emerges alive.  Oddly enough, the question that slightly exasperated me was completely left-field - it wasn't about the ethics of natural insemination, or the risk of accidental incest, or any of the other all-too-familiar objecti
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How the Daily Record told a pack of lies about me on their front page - and didn't get away with it

Today, for the first and last time in my life, I bought a copy of the Daily Record. It certainly wasn't the umpteenth hysterical front page headline about the Alex Salmond "scandal" that made the purchase irresistible, but instead something printed in much smaller lettering at the foot of the front page. "IPSO upholds sperm donor complaint against the Daily Record - See Page 2." That was a reference to a complaint against the Record that I submitted to the press regulator IPSO some four-and-a-half months ago. It's relatively rare for IPSO to uphold a complaint, and very, very rare for them to force a publication to make a front page reference to an adjudication, which gives you some idea of the seriousness of the Record's transgression. There has been a lot of pious talk as the Salmond story has unfolded about Record journalists "just doing their job" in a democratic society, but in case anyone is tempted to give them the benefit of the
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