Responding to IPSO’s announcement of changes to its rules, Dr Evan Harris, Joint Executive Director of Hacked Off, said:“After 15 months of IPSO claiming that radical changes to make it more effective and more independent of the industry are being secured urgently, these minor changes are a damp-squib. It’s all "press release" and no "press regulation". The vice-like grip of the large newspaper groups over IPSO appointments, over its constitution and over its rule book continues.Only one (the 4-year financial settlement) of the changes reduces the number of Leveson breaches from 20 to 19, according to the Media Standards Trust's gold standard analysis. (http://mediastandardstrust.org/mst-news/ipso-an-assessment-by-the-media-standards-trust/ ) But the rest of the changes are trivial or which merely bring IPSO into line with the failed PCC.The more that IPSO over-claim for these changes, the more it will seem that it is merely noise to disguise the fact that they remain wholly controlled by the large newspapers and are hopelessly ineffective at providing remedy for victims of press abuse.For an organisation which claims that "transparency is its watchword" and is supposed to serve the public, it is a matter of wonder why they did not consult the public over the changes and instead negotiated in secret with a secretive industry body.”NOTES:

• Hacked Off is the campaign for a free and accountable press. The Campaign works with victims of press abuse to achieve those aims.

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