January 16, 2017

The Editors’ Codebook is the handbook that sets the Editors’ Code in context and highlights best practice and key adjudications made by industry regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. It is intended to help members of the public considering making a complaint, and editors facing a difficult decision on a story that might give rise to a breach of the Code, by providing examples of how IPSO has approached similar cases in the past.

The Editors’ Code of Practice Committee, which prepares and publishes the Codebook, consulted IPSO during its production but the regulator is not bound by the advice it contains because each case is considered on its merits and IPSO remains the final arbiter of how the Code should be interpreted. IPSO is also not bound by the decisions of its predecessor, the Press Complaints Commission, but PCC cases are included where they are still relevant.

The Editors’ Code is regarded as the cornerstone of voluntary press self-regulation. In his 2012 report on the press Lord Justice Leveson said: “The current Editors’ Code has been widely praised by those in the industry. It has been developed by the industry over the last two decades and has adapted to take account of new concerns and issues that have arisen”.

The Code of Practice Committee was re-constituted following the Leveson inquiry and now includes editors, independent lay members and the chairman and chief executive of IPSO. In line with a Leveson recommendation, the committee conducted a wide-ranging public consultation on the Code and a revised version was introduced in January 2016.

Changes included a specific requirement that editors should not publish headlines not supported by the text of the article underneath.

The Editors’ Code of Practice Committee is currently conducting another public consultation on the Code. Suggestions for changes to the Code should be sent via the Editors’ Code Committee website. The closing date for submissions is 3 March 2017. To read IPSO’s press release in full, click here.