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Daily Star (United Kingdom)
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The Daily Star is a daily British tabloid newspaper. Its editor is Dawn Neesom. She was promoted to the post in December 2003 after the previous editor, Peter Hill, moved to become editor of the Daily Express. Previously she had been an executive on the paper in charge of the features department.
The Daily Star was first published on 2 November 1978, and was the first new national paper to be launched since the Daily Mirror in 1903. For many years it published Monday to Saturday but on 15 September 2002 it expanded to bring out a Sunday edition, the Daily Star Sunday, which is edited by Gareth Morgan. The Daily Star is published by Express Newspapers, which also publishes the Daily Express and Sunday Express. The group is owned by Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell company. The paper is best known for focussing on stories which largely revolve around celebrities, sport, and news and gossip about popular television programmes, such as soap operas and reality TV shows. The editorial stance of the Star's hard news articles is predominantly right wing, tackling such issues as asylum seekers and anti-social behaviour.
The newspaper features a photograph of a topless model on weekdays (in a similar vein to The Sun's Page 3 feature) and has "discovered" some wellknown models, most notably Rachel Ter Horst in 1993, and Lucy Pinder on a Bournemouth beach in Summer 2003. Such models as Cherry Dee and Michelle Marsh have also appeared on their page 3. These women are known in the paper as "Starbabes". The paper's glamour photographer is Jeany Savage.
The Star includes columns by Dominik Diamond and Vanessa Feltz (which is also printed in the Daily Express) The Goss Girls and a Forum page devoted to readers' text messages, which are apparently printed verbatim.
In 1987, the newspaper lost a high profile libel action brought by Jeffrey Archer, leading to an award of £500,000 in damages, over allegations of Archer's involvement with Monica Coghlan. The editor of the Daily Star, Lloyd Turner, was sacked six weeks after the trial. However the newspaper always stood by its story, and on 19 July 2001 Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial and was sentenced to a total of four years' imprisonment. The paper later launched a bid to reclaim £2.2m - the original payout plus interest and damages.[2]
Both the Daily Star and its Sunday equivalent, as well as its stablemates the Daily Express and Sunday Express, have featured heavy coverage of the missing toddler Madeleine McCann. In 2008 the McCann family sued the Star and Express for libel following the newspapers' coverage of the case. The action concerned more than 100 stories across the Daily Express, Daily Star and their Sunday equivalents, which accused the McCanns of involvement in their daughter's disappearance. The newspapers' coverage was regarded by the McCanns as grossly defamatory. In a settlement at the High Court of Justice, the newspapers agreed to run a front-page apology to the McCanns on 19 March 2008, publish another apology on the front pages of the Sunday editions on 23 March and make a statement of apology at the High Court. They also agreed to pay costs and substantial damages, which the McCanns plan to use to aid their search for their daughter.[3] In its apology, the Daily Star apologised for printing "stories suggesting the couple were responsible for, or may be responsible for, the death of their daughter Madeleine and for covering it up" and stated that "We now recognise that such a suggestion is absolutely untrue and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance."[4]
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