PCC To Quiz The Daily Mail About Jan Moir's Stephen Gately Column

The Press Complaints Commission will ask the Daily Mail to respond to complaints it has received about the now infamous Jan Moir column about Stephen Gately.

A record 21,000 people have complained to the PCC since the opinion piece, originally titled 'Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death', was published last Friday (October 16).

Outrage over the article which questioned the "happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships" has erupted on Twitter and other social networking sites, with high profile names such as Stephen Fry and Derren Brown openly slamming it.

Some have complained that the Moir article breaches the PCC code, which states: "The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability".

Today, the PCC have said they generally don't investigate cases unless "directly-affected parties" – Gately's family – complain to them.

However, they added they will contact the newspaper: "If, for whatever reason, those individuals do not wish to make a complaint, the PCC will in any case write to the Daily Mail for its response to the more general complaints from the public before considering whether there are any issues under the code to pursue."

53-year-old Moir has defended the Gately article, saying in a statement: "Some people, particularly in the gay community, have been upset by my article about the sad death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately. This was never my intention."

On civil partnerships, she said: "I was suggesting that civil partnerships - the introduction of which I am on the record in supporting - have proved just to be as problematic as marriages."

Moir blamed an "orchestrated" internet campaign for the backlash.

The original article included lines such as: "Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one. Let us be absolutely clear about this.”

She also wrote: "As a gay rights champion, I am sure he would want to set an example to any impressionable young men who may want to emulate what they might see as his glamorous routine.

"For once again, under the carapace of glittering, hedonistic celebrity, the ooze of a very different and more dangerous lifestyle has seeped out for all to see."

A number of blogs attacking the article have since been published, including Charlie Brooker's Jan Moir piece