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Accuracy |
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i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information, including pictures.
ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading
statement or distortion once recognised must be corrected, promptly and
with due prominence, and - where appropriate - an apology published. In
cases involving the Commission, prominence should be agreed with the
PCC in advance.
iii) The Press, whilst free to be partisan, must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.
iv) A publication must report fairly and
accurately the outcome of an action for defamation to which it has been
a party, unless an agreed settlement states otherwise, or an agreed
statement is published.
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| 2 |
Opportunity to reply |
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A fair opportunity for reply to inaccuracies must be given when reasonably called for. |
| 3 |
*Privacy |
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i) Everyone is entitled to respect for
his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence,
including digital communications.
ii) Editors will be expected to justify
intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. Account
will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of
information.
iii) It is unacceptable to photograph individuals in private places without their consent.
Note - Private places are public or private property where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.
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| 4 |
*Harassment |
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i) Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.
ii) They must not persist in
questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once
asked to desist; nor remain on their property when asked to leave and
must not follow them. If requested, they must identify themselves and
whom they represent.
iii) Editors must ensure these
principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to
use non-compliant material from other sources.
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| 5 |
Intrusion into grief or shock |
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i) In cases involving personal grief or
shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and
discretion and publication handled sensitively. This should not restrict
the right to report legal proceedings, such as inquests.
*ii) When reporting suicide, care should be taken to avoid excessive detail about the method used. |
| 6 |
*Children |
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i) Young people should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion.
ii) A child under 16 must not be
interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another
child’s welfare unless a custodial parent or similarly responsible adult
consents.
iii) Pupils must not be approached or photographed at school without the permission of the school authorities.
iv) Minors must not be paid for material
involving children’s welfare, nor parents or guardians for material
about their children or wards, unless it is clearly in the child's
interest.
v) Editors must not use the fame,
notoriety or position of a parent or guardian as sole justification for
publishing details of a child’s private life.
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| 7 |
*Children in sex cases |
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1. The press must not, even if legally
free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses
in cases involving sex offences.
2. In any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child -
i) The child must not be identified.
ii) The adult may be identified.
iii) The word "incest" must not be used where a child victim might be identified.
iv) Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship between the accused and the child.
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| 8 |
*Hospitals |
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i) Journalists must identify
themselves and obtain permission from a responsible executive before
entering non-public areas of hospitals or similar institutions to pursue
enquiries.
ii) The restrictions on intruding
into privacy are particularly relevant to enquiries about individuals
in hospitals or similar institutions.
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| 9 |
*Reporting of Crime |
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(i) Relatives or friends of persons
convicted or accused of crime should not generally be identified without
their consent, unless they are genuinely relevant to the story.
(ii) Particular regard should be paid to
the potentially vulnerable position of children who witness, or are
victims of, crime. This should not restrict the right to report legal
proceedings.
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| 10 |
*Clandestine devices and subterfuge |
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i) The press must not seek to obtain or
publish material acquired by using hidden cameras or clandestine
listening devices; or by intercepting private or mobile telephone calls,
messages or emails; or by the unauthorised removal of documents or
photographs; or by accessing digitally-held private information without
consent.
ii) Engaging in misrepresentation or
subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be
justified only in the public interest and then only when the material
cannot be obtained by other means.
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| 11 |
Victims of sexual assault |
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The press must not identify victims of
sexual assault or publish material likely to contribute to such
identification unless there is adequate justification and they are
legally free to do so.
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| 12 |
Discrimination |
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i) The press must avoid prejudicial or
pejorative reference to an individual's race, colour, religion, gender,
sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability.
ii) Details of an individual's race,
colour, religion, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or
disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.
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| 13 |
Financial journalism |
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i) Even where the law does not prohibit
it, journalists must not use for their own profit financial information
they receive in advance of its general publication, nor should they pass
such information to others.
ii) They must not write about shares or
securities in whose performance they know that they or their close
families have a significant financial interest without disclosing the
interest to the editor or financial editor.
iii) They must not buy or sell, either directly or through nominees
or agents, shares or securities about which they have written recently
or about which they intend to write in the near future. |
| 14 |
Confidential sources |
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Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information. |
| 15 |
Witness payments in criminal trials |
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i) No payment or offer of payment to a
witness - or any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a
witness - should be made in any case once proceedings are active as
defined by the Contempt of Court Act 1981.
This prohibition lasts until the suspect
has been freed unconditionally by police without charge or bail or the
proceedings are otherwise discontinued; or has entered a guilty plea to
the court; or, in the event of a not guilty plea, the court has
announced its verdict.
*ii) Where proceedings are not yet
active but are likely and foreseeable, editors must not make or offer
payment to any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a
witness, unless the information concerned ought demonstrably to be
published in the public interest and there is an over-riding need to
make or promise payment for this to be done; and all reasonable steps
have been taken to ensure no financial dealings influence the evidence
those witnesses give. In no circumstances should such payment be
conditional on the outcome of a trial.
*iii) Any payment or offer of payment
made to a person later cited to give evidence in proceedings must be
disclosed to the prosecution and defence. The witness must be advised of
this requirement.
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| 16 |
*Payment to criminals |
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i) Payment or offers of payment for
stories, pictures or information, which seek to exploit a particular
crime or to glorify or glamorise crime in general, must not be made
directly or via agents to convicted or confessed criminals or to their
associates – who may include family, friends and colleagues.
ii) Editors invoking the public interest
to justify payment or offers would need to demonstrate that there was
good reason to believe the public interest would be served. If, despite
payment, no public interest emerged, then the material should not be
published.
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There may be exceptions to the clauses marked * where they can be demonstrated to be in the public interest.
1. The public interest includes, but is not confined to:
i) Detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety.
ii) Protecting public health and safety.
iii) Preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.
2. There is a public interest in freedom of expression itself.
3. Whenever the public interest is
invoked, the PCC will require editors to demonstrate fully that they
reasonably believed that publication, or journalistic activity
undertaken with a view to publication, would be in the public interest
and how, and with whom, that was established at the time.
4. The PCC will consider the extent to which material is already in the public domain, or will become so.
5. In cases involving children under
16, editors must demonstrate an exceptional public interest to over-ride
the normally paramount interest of the child.
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