Sunbelievable!

National tabloid The Sun has been offering financial rewards to student media sources for incendiary photographs of students wearing offensive costumes on Halloween.

A reporter acting on behalf of The Sun made probing calls to a number of student newspapers across the country, including Bath student newspaper bathimpact, and Leeds University’s The Gryphon, for photos of any inappropriate costumes they might see this Halloween.

In a phonecall on Wednesday, Aidan Gregory, Editor-in-chief of The Mancunion, was directly asked by a Sun reporter for photographs of any students dressed up as ‘Jihadi John’, the British man who appeared in the recent Islamic State-released videos of the execution of US journalists James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, and Manchester-born aid worker Alan Henning, whose name was mentioned alongside.

The reporter offered a potential front-page spot and financial reward of thousands of pounds if a photo of any students dressed up as the executioner and his victim was submitted.

The reporter’s LinkedIn profile states that she attended the University of Manchester and used to write for Student Direct—the University of Manchester’s student newspaper before rebranding as The Mancunion.

This follows from last year when The Sun broke the story of two students from the University of Chester who were photographed dressed as the Twin Towers, destroyed in the terrorist attacks on September the 11^th, 2001.

The two 19-year-olds attended a Halloween night out in Chester and won a fancy dress competition, but later apologised for any offence caused after the widespread coverage and outrage expressed by their university and Students’ Union.

Bath University newspaper bathimpact was also apparently asked for “Ebola costumes,” which could be used in a similar way to those controversial photos released last year.

The editor of Bristol University’s student newspaper Epigram was also contacted by The Sun on the same day but did not speak with them.

The Executive of the University of Manchester Students’ Union are united in their condemnation of this.

Activities Officer, Joel Smith, said, “it’s disgusting that The Sun would seek to so deliberately exploit recent tragic events to unfairly represent students and young people at a national level.

“We strongly condemn this journalistic approach which sought to damage the integrity of both our Union and The Mancunion.

“The reputational damage to any individual who does end up on the cover of the Sun could really affect [them] and the paper is showing blatant disregard for this.

“This only serves to further damage relations between The Sun and students with the ongoing ‘No More Page 3’ campaign.”

General Secretary, Charlotte Cook, said, “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.”

There are concerns for the safety of any students identifiable in photos published, after a girl who last year dressed as Boston bombings victim received multiple death threats.

Earlier today, the Daily Mail reported that a Birmingham nightclub had held an Ebola-themed Halloween party, admitting later it had made a “huge error” in holding the event.

Last year, The Sun was banned from the University of Manchester Students’ Union, after the paper’s refusal to remove the controversial page three. The ‘No More Page 3’ campaign was championed by The Mancunion’s own Fashion Editor, Gráinne Morrison.

The University of Manchester is one of 15 universities across the country, including four Oxford colleges, who have implemented this ban.

A spokesperson for The Sun said:

“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.”