The Ethical and Legal Codes of Newspapers

The truth and integrity of the British press is questionable
but they have commitment to go to great lengths to get a story

Currently the British newspapers are self-regulatory but should endeavour to follow self-imposed ethical guidelines. There are of course some legal procedures that they must adhere to. In essence the legalities and ethics of newspapers are overseen by ‘codes of conducts’.

The bodies that oversee this are the Press Complaints Commission (PPC) and, although it is more of a watchdog and focuses mainly on TV and radio broadcasting, OFCOM.

The PCC claims on its website (www.ppc.org) to deal with complaints about editorial content of newspapers, magazines and websites. They aim to keep industry standards high by training journalists and editors and to work pro-actively to prevent harassment and media intrusion.  

The PCC also have an Editors Code in which one should maintain highest professional standards. They should set benchmarks for ethical standards protecting the rights of the individual and the publics’ rights to know. They should also protect the publics’ interest.

OFCOM oversee that people should not be unfairly treated in TV and radio and that the public should have a universal postal system in the UK – 6 days per week which is also universally priced. However what OFCOM do not do are resolve issues from consumers and telecoms providers, oversee premium rate phone services, content of TV and radio, complaints about the accuracy of BBC programming, BBC TV license fees, post offices and newspapers and magazines.

Prince Harry 'exposed' on the
front page of The Sun

Despite these ‘ethical codes’ this has still not stopped the press in pursuing unethical procedures to get information for stories such as the recent phone hacking scandal. Another example of unethical procedures was the invasion of privacy towards Prince Harry when the press decided to publish pictures of him naked, which could also be deemed as breaking legal codes.

The laws that should be adhered to by the press include libel, accuracy, privacy, trespass, EU human rights, copyright and contempt of court.



Sheryl Gascoigne with her lawyer outside a
London court after suing the press for libel

The press, although should not be libel towards people, often are due to the huge financial implications on the aggrieved individual. It is believed that it can cost up to £200,000 to sue a newspaper for libel.

For many people this cost to clear their name is an expense that is out of the reach for most. Because of this the press are able, on most but not all occasions, get away with lies. In a case with the former wife of England football legend Paul Gascoigne, Cheryl Gascoigne in the BBC documentary ‘See You in Court’ she was filmed having to put her house up for sale to afford to pay for legal costs. Even though she was successful in clearing her name the costs that she received from the press were significantly lower than the fees to sue the press from libel.


The UK press decided not to publish topless
images of Kate Middleton. But the use of a long
lens to capture he images are some of the
techniques deployed to gain a story

Another law that is flaunted by the press is the human right of privacy. This was evident recently when images of Kate Middleton had been taken of her topless. Although the British press, on this occasion, decided not to print the images, photographers often use lenses from a long distance to capture images is an invasion of privacy which is another law frequently abused by the press.