The Sun offers money for “Jihadi John” photos

The Sun has now come under fire from various student unions, after it emerged that their reporters have offered money in exchange for images of controversial Halloween costumes.

Editors at a number of university newspapers have since spoken out, claiming that “thousands of pounds” and “a potential front page spot” were offered for pictures of students dressed (amongst other offensive costume ideas) as “Jihadi John”, the British member of ISIS responsible for several beheadings this year.

Publications that were contacted by The Sun include bathimpact at the University of Bath, The Gryphon at Leeds University,Epigram at Bristol University, and Mancunion at the University of Manchester.

Speaking to The Guardian, one of the editors at the Mancunion, told of how the editor-in-chief at her paper received a phone call from a female reporter at The Sun, who made the offer for pictures of “Jihadi John” costumes or those of Alan Henning, the Salford resident who was killed by Isis at the beginning of October. “They implied that if we could make that happen, they would reward us and if we wanted to go even further, there would be even more reward.”

She expressed how the Manchester student community were disgusted by this request, as Alan Henning hailed from Greater Manchester and his death had been a huge shock to them. “We felt that they were trying to misrepresent students, by trying to get us to send something that would not only make students look bad but that would also be completely insensitive, especially for Manchester students. Manchester students have been very affected by Alan Henning’s execution.”

Officials from the University of Manchester’s Student Union have unanimously condemned the tabloid’s actions, with general secretary Charlotte Cook issuing the statement: “We have a zero-tolerance approach towards offensive outfits at the Union to ensure we are maintaining a safe space for all our members.

“However, undoubtedly somewhere across the country people will choose to wear inappropriate costumes. For_The Sun_ to purposefully have students out witch-hunting for this minority in order to completely misrepresent students as a whole is disgraceful.”

Also speaking to The Guardian, Ben Butcher from_bathimpact_ said that “we were told that pictures of ‘Jihadi Johns’ would be a front-page story, but ebola victims would also be good. They said a substantial financial reward would be offered. They wanted to portray all students as stupid – based on the actions of a few. We wouldn’t want to sell out the whole student body like that.”

This is not the first time that The Sun has courted student Halloween costume controversy. Last year, the tabloid had published photos of two students from the University of Chester, who won a nightclub fancy dress competition with outfits depicting the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers being destroyed in the 9/11 terror attacks.

A spokesperson for News International issued the following statement: “The Sun was aware that there were Halloween parties taking place on student campuses, with reports of some interesting choices of costumes, and was calling student newspapers to see if they had photos that they might want to share with the newspaper. We categorically deny any suggestion that money was offered to construct or fake a photograph.

“Approaching other publications is a legitimate and often practiced journalism request which we stand by.”