April 24, 2017

IMPRESS has now started to receive requests for arbitration under its scheme. IMPRESS says that as a central plank of its regulatory scheme, arbitration is offered to solve civil disputes between publishers and claimants. The IMPRESS arbitration rules offers publishers and members of the public “greater cost certainty and protection against prohibitive legal costs, as well as timely resolutions to legal disputes”, the regulator says.

IMPRESS has announced the first six arbitrators to be appointed to its panel by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb). The arbitrators are all experienced lawyers who have been appointed on the basis of their knowledge and experience of both arbitration and media law. All panel members are fellows of CIArb. This demonstrates their competence in arbitration through professional training and practical experience of chairing arbitration hearings and writing awards, IMPRESS says.

The IMPRESS/CIArb scheme relates to civil claims between a claimant and a participating publisher for defamation; breach of confidence; misuse of private information; malicious falsehood; and harassment.

The scheme does not cover pre-publication matters, which seek to prevent publication. When a claim for arbitration is lodged, IMPRESS will assess whether it is suitable for arbitration. If so, CIArb will appoint an arbitrator from the IMPRESS panel.

Arbitration is a private dispute resolution process and IMPRESS says that it will not comment on any claims made under its arbitration scheme, other than to publish a final award on its website within seven days of the communication of the award to the parties. The arbitrator may, however, decide to hold an arbitration hearing in public after hearing representations from the parties about whether it should be held in public or private.

In its annual report, the first of which will be published in summer 2017, IMPRESS will provide aggregated data on the number of requests received for arbitration and a list of all concluded arbitrations. To read IMPRESS’s press release and for a list of the appointed arbitrators, click here.