Byline Times has announced that they have joined Impress, the UK’s only independent press regulator. In doing so, they have become the first national newspaper to voluntarily sign up to truly independent regulation, joining over 200 other publications that have already made the
move.

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Peter Jukes, Executive Director at Byline Times, commented that in joining Impress Byline Times have confirmed a commitment to accurate and ethical reporting, and restated their belief that disinformation is a significant threat to UK democracy.

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Impress was founded in 2015 to meet the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry as a truly independent alternative to the press-controlled complaints body “IPSO”. Impress handles complaints from readers against the publications they regulate and also provides an arbitration scheme and standards advice service to their member publications. Given that the UK population’s trust in newspaper journalism is the lowest in the EU, there is an obvious and desperate need for reform to press standards. This reform can only be provided by press membership of an independent regulator, such as Impress, right across the newspaper industry.

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The majority of UK national newspapers, however, continue to persist with “IPSO”, an industry-controlled complaints body that has never once launched an investigation or issued a fine since its inception in 2014. This is despite blatant examples of press malpractice and unethical conduct that Hacked Off and others have reported on. And then there are some publications, such as Byline Times’ chief competitor The Guardian and The Financial Times, which have joined neither Impress nor IPSO. They operate in-house models.

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It is not entirely clear why these national newspapers have rejected the Impress model of independent regulation. The system under which Impress operates protects investigative reporting, and bans political interference. The only thing it does not do is allow newspapers to go on acting with impunity and marking their own homework – suggesting it is the very principle of accountability which publishers object to.

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Byline Times’ decision to subject itself to truly independent regulation has, in particular, left its competitor The Guardian out in the cold: creating a potent contrast between the now-regulated output of Byline Times and the fare of The Guardian, where any given article could be a shining example of ethical, public interest reporting, or be riven with falsehoods and distortions. As long as The Guardian remains unregulated, its readers are left with no guarantees that any of its content is accurate or ethically produced.

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Byline Times have also taken the opportunity to call on legislators for change to raise standards in the press. Director Peter Jukes and Editor Hardeep Matharu have written to MPs with a direct appeal:

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The Government must now decide whether to follow our lead, and those of over 200 other publications which have joined Impress, and take the action the Labour Party promised in Opposition for over a decade to introduce the Leveson recommendations and make independent regulation the minimum we expect of news publishers – not the exception.

The future of journalism is at a crossroads and the Prime Minister faces a critical choice: surrender to the Musks and the Murdochs and allow our shared grip on truth and information to disintegrate.  Or stand with journalists, ethical publishers and the public – and act now to protect the truth with robust and independent press regulation.

‍You can read Byline Times here, or support the first national newspaper in an independent regulator by taking out a subscription here.

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