Independent Board Governance
An independent self regulatory body should be governed by an independent Board. In order to ensure the independence of the body, the Chair and members of the Board must be appointed in a genuinely open, transparent and independent way, without any influence from industry or Government.
How was this assessed?
Response
Accepted in Part
Response
Accepted in PartThe Prime Minister stated on 29 November 2012 that he accepted "the principles that Lord Justice Leveson has laid out" for independent self-regulation, including "an independent board, a standards code, an arbitration service and the power to demand up-front, prominent apologies and impose million-pound fines." However, he rejected statutory underpinning, expressing "serious concerns and misgivings" about crossing "the Rubicon of writing elements of press regulation into the law of the land." The Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press was granted on 30 October 2013, establishing the Press Recognition Panel as the recognition body. IPSO was established in September 2014 but has not sought Royal Charter recognition. IMPRESS was recognised by the PRP in October 2016. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/david-cameron-statement-in-response-to-the-leveson-inquiry-report
Published Evidence
Published assessments of implementation progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Check the source type badge to see whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.
IPSO (est. 2014) has an independent board with appointments made through an open process. However IPSO has not sought Royal Charter recognition from the Press Recognition Panel and met only 12 of 38 Leveson criteria when created. IMPRESS (Royal Charter-recognised since October 2016) fully meets this recommendation but no major national newspaper is a member.
View detailed findings
The recommendation is technically fulfilled by both IPSO and IMPRESS but neither body covers the full press landscape. The regulator most major newspapers belong to (IPSO) deliberately avoids the Leveson recognition framework.