The Independent Press Standards Organisation and accuracy: A comparative study of complaints-handling procedures in four UK newspapers

Abstract

This study examines the attitudes of four Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO)-regulated UK newspapers towards redressing inaccuracies in their print editions. It analyses the ways in which the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, The Times and The Sun dealt with complaints in order to assess their attitudes towards the editorial standard of accuracy. Further, this study aims to evaluate IPSO’s impact on the newspapers’ complaints-handling processes throughout 2016, more than a year after its establishment, at a time when its regulatory arsenal had been consolidated and put into practice. We found that there was no evidence of any binary opposition in a spectrum of quality/popular press reflected in the sample newspapers’ respective attitudes and responses toward IPSO’s complaints-handling standards on matters of inaccuracy. Furthermore, our evaluation of the position, timing and wording of the published corrections of all four newspapers did not confirm a marked difference in the extent to which they were prepared to demonstrate their accountability to their readers by drawing published inaccuracies to their attention. IPSO has contributed to more systematic complaints handling but more needs to be done. Our findings are of wider relevance beyond the specific period under investigation.