Harry Potter author shares a social media post from gender-critical group hitting back against Ipso’s decision to ‘assert a lie’

JK Rowling appeared to criticise the press watchdog’s ruling that calling a trans woman “a man” was discriminatory.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) investigated an article in The Spectator in which Juno Dawson, an author, was described as “a man who claims to be a woman”.

The watchdog found that the article had breached the Editor’s Code of Practice as it was discriminatory with regard to Dawson’s gender identity, and the magazine was forced to publish the ruling on its website.

Rowling has shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, condemning the ruling and warning that no publication should be forced to “assert a lie”.

The post from Fair Cop, the gender-critical campaign group, claims that the Spectator article stating that Dawson is a man is “the truth”.

Rowling’s apparent condemnation of the Ipso ruling is one of many interventions following the watchdog’s decision, which some have warned will have a “chilling effect” on free speech.

The article in question was written by Gareth Roberts, and concerned the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, focusing on the former Scottish first minister’s stance on transgender rights.

The piece stated that Sturgeon “was interviewed by writer Juno Dawson, a man who claims to be a woman, and so the conversation naturally turned to gender”.

Dawson complained to Ipso about this reference, alleging it was inaccurate, discriminatory and harassing.

Ispo rejected the claims about harassment and inaccuracy, but upheld the complaint about discrimination.

Justifying the decision, the watchdog’s committee stated that “referring to the complainant as a man ‘claiming’ to be a woman was personally belittling and demeaning toward the complainant”, in a way that was both “pejorative and prejudicial”.

This overtook Mr Roberts’ “right to express his views on the broader issues of a person’s sex and gender identity”, Ipso stated.

‘An outrageous decision’

The decision was condemned by Michael Gove, the editor of The Spectator and former Tory minister, who wrote: “I am in no doubt this is an outrageous decision, offensive to the principle of free speech and chilling in its effect on free expression.”

Mr Gove, who took over as editor of The Spectator from Fraser Nelson in October, after the article was published, added that defending free speech was not “some quixotic cause to be defended as a matter of purist principle”, but instead “has saved lives”.

Free speech campaigners involved in transgender issues, including MP Rosie Duffield and Maya Forstater, a Sex Matters campaigner, also criticised attempts to prevent authors expressing gender-critical views.