IPSO Standards Investigation into the JC

BY ITS REFUSAL TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST THE JEWISH CHRONICLE, IPSO HAS PROVED IT IS A SHAM

Statement by victims of libel by the Jewish Chronicle and members of the public whose complaints against the paper were upheld by IPSO.

In August we wrote to Lord Faulks, the chair of IPSO, pointing to the collapse of journalistic standards at the Jewish Chronicle and urging him to initiate a formal Standards Investigation into what had gone wrong. The Editors’ Code of Conduct had been breached 33 times in three years and the paper admitted libel on four occasions in the same period.

We can announce that today, five months on from our letter, we have been told by Lord Faulks that there will be no Standards Investigation and that IPSO believes it is sufficient to provide Jewish Chronicle staff with compliance training – something that is already supposed to be routine for all IPSO members. *

IPSO has refused to take meaningful action in the case of a member that repeatedly defies its authority, and it is clear that it will never do so. This sends the message to IPSO members that no behaviour by them could ever be bad enough to prompt even a formal investigation, let alone disciplinary action.

We had pointed out to Lord Faulks that IPSO’s own conduct should also be subject to investigation. IPSO’s complaints committee publicly reported the Jewish Chronicle to IPSO’s standards department for ‘unacceptable’ conduct in November 2019, yet the paper’s spree of libels and code breaches was allowed to continue. This matter has been ignored.

The price for this regulatory failure is felt by the public – both by those who are libelled and misrepresented and by readers who are fed falsehoods without consequence. That IPSO provided its response to us only after five months had elapsed underlines this disregard for the public. That it chose to do so at the height of the Christmas season smacks of the worst kind of news manipulation.

The moral is clear: IPSO is nothing like a real regulator. It is a sham, a toothless organisation that always puts the interests of the press before those of ordinary people. If you have been abused in the papers, don’t count on IPSO to put it right.

Notes

*IPSO and training. Regular compliance training for staff is a requirement of IPSO membership and is offered to members by IPSO itself as a matter of routine.

IPSO’s rules declare: ‘Each publisher must submit a yearly statement reporting on their compliance processes and approach to ensuring editorial standards. The statement must cover a publisher’s approach to editorial standards; complaints-handling processes; training processes and record on compliance, including details of any complaints that have been upheld by IPSO’s Complaints Committee within the relevant period. The statements are one way in which publishers show that they take the Editors’ Code of Practice seriously.’ https://www.ipso.co.uk/monitoring/annual-statements/

The Jewish Chronicle itself has stated in successive annual reports to IPSO: ’Training updates are normally scheduled twice-yearly and supplemented with ad-hoc sessions when deemed necessary.’ https://www.ipso.co.uk/media/2080/jewish-chronicle-annual-statement.pdf

The IPSO website states: ‘Our broader commitment to press standards includes supporting all of our member publishers, large or small, with bespoke newsroom training on how we apply the Editors’ Code and how to handle complaints effectively for editors, managers and for journalists.’ https://www.ipso.co.uk/member-publishers/training/

Letter from IPSO, 23 December 2021

Standards Investigation Complaint to IPSO, August 2021

Dear Lord Faulks,

We welcome IPSO’s agreement to consider Jo Bird’s proposal for a Standards Investigation into the Jewish Chronicle and we urge you to launch such an investigation without delay. With 28 recorded breaches of the Editors’ Code and four libel defeats in just three years, it is clear that the paper’s editorial standards are shockingly low and IPSO’s actions to date have made no difference.

We have all either seen our complaints to IPSO about the Jewish Chronicle’s bad journalism upheld or secured admissions of libel from the paper. Unless standards there improve there will be more victims, while readers will continue to be misled.

IPSO’s regulations say a Standards Investigation can take place where there is evidence of ‘serious and systemic breaches of the code’. The seriousness of the breaches by the Jewish Chronicle is attested to in IPSO’s own rulings while the sheer number of breaches and libel defeats – taking place at a small publication that appears only weekly – proves the problem is systemic.

We would be grateful if you would circulate this letter to all IPSO board members and to senior management.

Yours,

Jo Bird

John Davies

Ibrahim Hewitt, Interpal

Jenny Lennox

Kal Ross

Mike Sivier

Thomas Suárez

Marc Wadsworth

Audrey White

29 July 2021

IPSO uphold my complaint against the JC

I welcome IPSO’s finding that ‘The Jewish Chronicle’ is guilty of significant inaccuracy and breached the editors code.

The Press Standards body found that the JC’s report in November 2020 that I "had been suspended for the third time was inaccurate, and it had therefore failed to take care not to publish inaccurate information in breach of Clause 1(i). Where the inaccuracy related to the complainant’s position as a councillor, and inaccurately reported the more serious sanction of suspension, this was a significant inaccuracy requiring correction".

IPSO, the self-regulator of newspapers, appears unable to address discrimination. I am disappointed it has failed to uphold my complaint about racism, but I am not surprised. The JC erased my Jewishness in articles about anti-Jewish racism, even when the JC recognised other people as Jewish within the same article. Imagine articles about mistreatment of elderly people, where one person was consistently recognised as elderly and another was not. Omission of my Jewishness removed crucial context and means articles were misleading and distorted.

I believe ‘The Jewish Chronicle’ title itself is increasingly misleading and inaccurate. There are other Jewish chronicles such as the Jewish Telegraph and Forward. The publication is neither wholly owned nor written by Jewish people. Jewishness is denied for some of the Jewish people who are chronicled.

IPSO has found nine breaches by the JC in the last three years. In the same period, the JC has paid complainants in at least four libel actions, including Marc Wadsworth last week. Clearly, there are deep-rooted unaddressed problems at the weekly paper. I urge IPSO to launch a formal Standards Investigation.

29 July 2021