Telegraph to draw up new editorial and commercial guidelines
In the wake of controversy over the way in which it has handled coverage of the HSBC Swiss tax dodging allegations, the Daily Telegraph has today announced it will draw up guidelines that will define the relationship between its editorial and commercial staff.
In Friday’s leader column, which made “no apologies” for the way it has covered the allegations of wrongdoing by HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary, said: “We are drawing up guidelines that will define clearly and openly how our editorial and commercial staff will co-operate in an increasingly competitive media industry, particularly in digital publishing, an area whose journalistic and commercial importance can only grow.”
The controversy was sparked on Wednesday when The Telegraph’s chief political editor, Peter Oborne, announced his resignation from the paper, writing in Open Demoncracy that if newspapers allow advertisers to influence editorial content for fear of losing revenue, democracy could be “in peril.”
While the majority of major national titles ran the HSBC story over several pages and for a number of days, The Telegraph reported nothing the following Monday, and very little on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a statement issued earlier this week, the Telegraph said Oborne’s “astonishing and unfounded” attack was “full of inaccuracy and innuendo”, although did not address what was incorrect.
In Friday’s leader column, the Telegraph said the HSBC story had been handled according to the paper’s editorial judgement and was informed by its values.
“We are proud to be the champion of British business and enterprise,” it said. “In an age of cheap populism and corrosive cynicism about wealth-creating businesses, we have defended British industries including the financial services industry that accounts for almost a tenth of the UK economy, sustains two million jobs and provides around one in every eight pounds the Exchequer raises in tax.”
The paper also launched an attack on its rivals, stating it would take “no lectures” about journalism from the likes of the BBC, the Guardian or the Times, who all reported extensively on the story.
“Those media outlets that are this week sniping about our coverage of HSBC were similarly dismissive in 2009 when we began to reveal details of MPs’ expenses claims, a fact that speaks volumes about their judgment and partiality.
“Our support for Britain’s financial services has never blinded us to the failings of the industry. In 2012, we revealed that HSBC was at the centre of a major HM Revenue and Customs investigation after it opened offshore accounts in Jersey for criminals living in this country. Many of the media outlets that are today so excited about HSBC’s conduct showed remarkably little interest in those revelations at the time.”
The Telegraph also noted that it operated under a different financial model to its main competitors, pointing out that the BBC is taxpayer funded, whilst the Guardian has the backing of a charitable trust and the Times is able to receive subsidies from its tabloid stablemates.
“We are proud to do that which our critics cannot or will not do: to combine journalistic excellence with commercial success,” the paper said.
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