Hundreds of My Chemical Romance fans gathered at London's Marble Arch on May 31 to protest against the mainstream media's coverage of the suicide of 13-year-old rock fan Hannah Bond.
Newspapers - notably the Daily Mail - caused controversy when they reported that emo was a "suicide cult" after the teen's tragic death, blaming her suicide and the growing problem of self-harm on 'the emo cult'.
"We want to set the record straight," says K! reader Anni Smith, who helped organise Saturday's protest. "My Chemical Romance have gone as far as calling out the number of a suicide hotline from the stage; they always fight for us and try to protect us. Now we want to return the favour."
At midday, a group of 40 fans demonstrated at the newspaper's offices in Kensington, before hundreds more then gathered at Marble Arch to protest against the newspaper's sensationalist reporting.
The Daily Mail issued a statement that afternoon in response to the protests:
"The Daily Mail's coverage of the 'Emo' movement has been balanced, restrained and above all, in the public interest. Genuine concerns were raised at the inquest earlier this month on 13 year old emo follower Hannah Bond who had been self-harming and then tragically killed herself," reads the statement.
"In common with other newspapers we ran an accurate news story recording the Coroner's remarks and the parents' comments. We also published two other articles, one of which explained the background to the Hannah tragedy in calm and un-sensational language.
"The other was a first person opinion piece by a well-known writer, written from the perspective of a mother concerned for her children. We have also run two prominent page lead letters from an emo music fan and from a fan of My Chemical Romance defending their point of view.
"Our music critic admires the music of the band and publicised the band's UK tour last year. Since this protest was announced a great deal of misinformation has appeared on the internet, much of which confuses what the Daily Mail has actually published with the comments of website readers and 'blogs' over which we have no control and which have stirred up emotions.
"We note it has been pointed out by others that all this provides wonderful publicity for Warners and their impending release of My Chemical Romance's latest album.
"The Daily Mail is a broad church and is always ready to listen to the views of readers. We do, however, suggest those who want to protest or comment read everything we have published and act on fact not rumour."
See our issue of Kerrang! out June 11 for full coverage of the protest.
