Editors code of practice

Question 1

Number one accuracy

Answer 1

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images
ii) A fair opportunity to reply to significant inaccuracies should be given, when reasonably called for.

Question 2

Number two- Privacy

Answer 2

1. Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.
2. Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual’s private life without consent. In considering an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, account will be taken of the complainant’s own public disclosures of information and the extent to which the material complained about is already in the public domain or will become so.

Question 3

Number 3-Harassment

Answer 3

1.Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.

Question 4

Number 4-Intrusion into grief or shock

Answer 4

In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively. These provisions should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.

Question 5

Number 5-Reporting suicide

Answer 5

When reporting suicide, to prevent simulative acts care should be taken to avoid excessive detail of the method used, while taking into account the media’s right to report legal proceedings

Question 6

Number 6- Children

Answer 6

1. Children under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child’s welfare unless parents permission is given.
2. They must not be approached or photographed at school without permission of the school authorities.

Question 7

Number 7-Children in sex cases

Answer 7

1.The press must not, even if legally free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex offences.

Question 8

Number 8 Hospitals

Answer 8

1.Journalists must identify themselves and obtain permission from a responsible executive before entering non-public areas of hospitals or similar institutions to pursue enquiries.

Question 9

Number 9- Reporting of a crime

Answer 9

1.Relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of crime should not generally be identified without their consent, unless they are genuinely relevant to the story.

Question 10

Number 10-Clandestine and subterfuge devices

Answer 10

1. Relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of crime should not generally be identified without their consent, unless they are genuinely relevant to the story.
2. Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means.

Question 11

Number 11- Victims of sexual assault

Answer 11

1.The press must not identify or publish material likely to lead to the identification of a victim of sexual assault unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so.

Question 12

Number 12- Discrimination

Answer 12

i) The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s, race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability.
ii) Details of an individual’s race, colour, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.

Question 13

Number 13- Financial journalism

Answer 13

i) Even where the law does not prohibit it, journalists must not use for their own profit financial information they receive in advance of its general publication, nor should they pass such information to others.

Question 14

Number 14- Confidential sources

Answer 14

Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.

Question 15

Number 15-

Answer 15

Witness payments in criminal trials

Question 16

Number 16- Payment to criminals

Answer 16

Payment or offers of payment for stories, pictures or information, which seek to exploit a particular crime or to glorify or glamorise crime in general, must not be made directly or via agents to convicted or confessed criminals or to their associates – who may include family, friends and colleagues