![]() She wrote: "Doesn't the paper have a house style and a position on the use of this racist word? It is just as objectionable coming out of the mouth of Clarkson, or anyone else, as it is seeing it in print in the Guardian." One Guardian reader who shares that view complained about the Clarkson article. ![]() Indeed, most absolutely condemn its usage in all cases." It has such historical significance that many people deem its use – in any context – entirely unacceptable.Īs the Guardian's assistant comment editor Joseph Harker wrote: "The use of this word among black Britons is not the norm. This is where the debate becomes more complicated because I don't believe the N-word should be lumped in with any old swearword or off-colour phrase. Unlike other newspapers, Guardian policy is to not censor out or use asterisks for offensive words. The Guardian's first readers editor, Ian Mayes, wrote that there was not necessarily a consensus within the company on how the N-word should be dealt with in stories. By using the unaltered quote and explaining the context in which it was used, the facts are laid bare for our readers – who, as the Guardian's style guide editor, David Marsh, says, "are grownup enough to handle such things" – citing the Guardian's coverage of the John Terry trial, where it was the only paper to quote the actual words at the heart of the case. The underlying principle is that our job as journalists reporting the news is to establish the facts and let readers make up their own minds. That said, a single reference to the offensive word somewhere in the body of the article is enough – or we run the risk of being gratuitous and insensitive. Whether intended to or not, it could play a role in attempts to sanitise or gloss over what the speaker has said. My personal view is that we should avoid altering direct quotes by censoring or abbreviating them, even when they contain deeply offensive words.
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