Paul Dacre responds to criticism of the Daily Mail

Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre has a written a comment piece in the Guardian in which he seeks to refute criticism of his newspaper.

The article comes following protests about a Daily Mail article on the Labour leader's father Ralph Miliband.

Mr Dacre wrote: "Yes, the Mail is happy to accept that in his personal life, Ralph Miliband was, as described by his son, a decent and kindly man – although we won't withdraw our view that he supported an ideology that caused untold misery in the world.

"Yes, we accept that he cherished this country's traditions of tolerance and freedom – while, in a troubling paradox typical of the left, detesting the very institutions and political system that made those traditions possible.

"And yes, the headline was controversial – but popular newspapers have a long tradition of using provocative headlines to grab readers' attention. In isolation that headline may indeed seem over the top, but read in conjunction with the article we believed it was justifiable."

The full article was published on The Guardian website.

Read: Protesters target Daily Mail