Morrissey Receives Apology From NME Over 2007 ‘Racist’ Accusation

Morrissey has finally received an apology from the NME, a British magazine who wrote an article in 2007 proclaiming that the former Smiths star was a racist.

BBC reports that the singer sued the magazine after the article “deliberately twisted” his comments on immigration. The NME, as well as publisher IPC apologized in a joint statement, saying that “We do not believe [Morrissey] is a racist.”

The statement, which was published on the magazine’s website, as well as in the published edition, stated:

“We wish to make clear that we do not believe that he is a racist. We didn’t think we were saying he was and we apologise to Morrissey if he or anyone else misunderstood our piece in that way. We never set out to upset Morrissey and we hope we can both get back to doing what we do best.”

The 2007 article, titled, “Morrissey: Big mouth strikes again” portrayed Morrissey in a bad light, which comments that, according to The Guardian, included:

“With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears. If you walk through Knightsbridge on any bland day of the week you won’t hear an English accent. You’ll hear every accent under the sun apart from the British accent.”

He also stated:

“England is a memory now. The gates are flooded and anybody can have access to England and join in.”

The singer’s solicitor was not available for comment after the pre-trial hearing, according to the BBC.

Do you think that Morrissey’s comments about immigration in the 2007 NME article expressed racism?