Petition Calls for UK's Daily Mail Editor to Resign for Stoking Xenophobia

A new online petition has been launched requesting that the Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre step down over the newspapers reporting on immigration and the EU 'Brexit' referendum.

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“Our democracy relies on media that tells the truth, but the Mail’s anti-EU editor, Paul Dacre, has spun a steady stream of misinformation and fear, adding to a climate where rage and xenophobia flourish,” the Avaaz online petition, which has almost 50,000 signatures, states.

Campaign group Avaaz, which launched the petition on Tuesday, cited inaccurate reporting on the issue of immigration following an erroneous front-page report which claimed that illegal immigrants found in a truck in East London had said they were from Europe.

The Avaaz petition argues that Dacre has “damaged the journalistic integrity of the Daily Mail by allowing front page stories to run based on untruths”.

Leading up to the referendum vote, the U.K.'s second largest paper has issued several articles containing anti-immigration stories editorial lines, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The online petition goes on to criticize the Daily Mail for its coverage leading up to the referendum campaign.

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On the eve of the referendum that will determine the U.K.’s membership status with the EU, The Daily Mail ran a pro-Brexit article while it’s sister title, The Mail on Sunday, declared its support for voting to remain in the EU, marking the first editorial disagreement since 1983.

The Avaaz initiative issued an appeal to the publication’s owner, Lord Rothermere, who is believed to hold pro-European sentiments, advocating for him to “reel in or reconsider Paul Dacre, as the editor of the Daily Mail.”

Britain will vote Thursday on whether the country should exit the European Union.