A ?close-up? photograph of a policeman comforting children at the scene of a bus crash should not have been published in newspapers, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has ruled.
Ten schoolchildren were injured when a double-decker bus crashed into a railway bridge in Leicester last December ? nearly slicing off the roof of the vehicle.
None of the children?s injuries were serious.
A photographer took a picture of children being comforted by a policeman at the scene of the accident.
But a mother of one of the children in the photo complained to the newspaper watchdog stating that the picture, published on 12 December 2009, had caused her daughter further upset.
The PCC today ruled that the Nottingham Evening Post and Leicester Mercury were wrong to publish the picture without parental consent.
The newspapers believed that publication of the photo was in the public interest.
The Leicester Mercury had also argued that the photograph had been taken on the street and had not been accompanied by any private details of the children involved.
The watchdog today upheld the mother’s complaint.
The PCC said that publication had breached its guidelines relating to photographing a child aged under 16 on issues involving the child?s welfare.
