Regulating Newspapers: Researching Case Studies

Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt argue that by and large, the regulation of all UK media is largely ineffective for a variety of reasons:

• Powerful media industries are motivated by maximising profit and securing power (Curran & Seaton), and are able to use their power and influence to bypass regulations
• Digitally convergent media technologies, for example streaming, internet piracy and difficult to regulate social media sites mean that traditional regulation is now essentially impossible
• The regulatory bodies that have been set up to regulate media are hands-off and ineffective at doing their jobs

Task One - ISPO Code of Conduct

ISPO is the Independent Press Standards Organisation

Invasion of Privacy

• everyone is entitled to respect for their private and family life
• editors must justify intrusions into any individuals private life without consent
• it is unacceptable to photograph individuals without consent where there is an expectation of privacy

Intrusion into grief or shock

• in cases of personal grief and shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion with all publication handed sensibly

Self-harm and suicide

• when reporting suicide, excessive detail cannot be used in hope to prevent simulative acts

Racism and discriminatory language

• press must avoid prejudicial/pejorative references to an individuals race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or any mental/physical illness/disability. details of this must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story

Crime and Reporting on Children

• relatives/friends should avoid being identified without their consent, unless genuinely relevant to the story
• particular regard to potential vulnerable children under the age of 18 who are witnesses/victims
• editors should generally avoid naming children under the age of 18 for arrest unless there is proof their name is already in the public domain or that the individual has given consent