Press industry sets out plans for new regulator

The newspaper and magazine industry has today set out plans for a new press regulator despite the ongoing Government impasse.

The Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents Associated Newspapers, Guardian News & Media, News International and the Telegraph Media Group amongst others, released a statement on Monday in which it unveiled The Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).

The group said it was a chance to “break with the past and…deliver all the key Leveson recommendations.”

The joint statement also declared that Ipso would have powers to impose fines of up to £1 million and ensure that corrections and adjudications were published “whether editors like it or not”. It would also see the implementation of a whistleblowers’ hotline for journalists.

However, a new industry-established regulator – which would replace the Press Complaints Commission – was described by campaign group Hacked Off as nothing more than “a cynical rebranding exercise”.

Brian Cathcart, executive director of Hacked Off, which represents phone-hacking victims, said: “[Press proprietors and editors] are determined to hold on to the power to bully the public without facing any consequences.”

Plans in the Ipso draft constitution, which will have to be approved by more than 200 publishers before being finalised, include:

• The power to impose fines up to £1 million for ‘serious’ or ‘systemic’ wrong-doing.
• A whistleblowers’ hotline for journalists.
• A service to warn the press “when members of the public make it clear that they do not wish to be the subject of media attention”.
• A standards and compliance wing “with investigative powers to call editors to account”.
• An arbitration service “to offer a speedy and inexpensive alternative to the libel courts, subject to the successful conclusion of a pilot scheme”.