Recommendation L45: Source Transparency
From An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press, published 29 November 2012.
Recommendation
A new regulatory body should consider encouraging the press to be as transparent as possible in relation to the sources used for stories, including providing any information that would help readers to assess the reliability of information from a source and providing easy access, such as web links, to publicly available sources of information such as scientific studies or poll results. This should include putting the names of photographers alongside images. This is not in any way intended to undermine the existing provisions on protecting journalists' sources, only to encourage transparency where it is both possible and appropriate to do so.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry recommended that a new regulatory body encourage press source transparency. In a statement to the House of Commons on the Leveson Inquiry report in November 2012, David Cameron, Prime Minister, accepted the central recommendations on independent self-regulation and stated that the onus was on the press to implement them (David Cameron response, Nov 2012). The Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, granted by the Privy Council in October 2013, provided that the Recognition Panel may take recommendation 45 into account but cannot refuse recognition for non-compliance (Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, Oct 2013).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 2 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
In volume IV of the report, Lord Justice Leveson sets out proposals for independent self-regulation organised by the media. He details the key “requirements” that an independent self-regulatory body should meet, including independence of appointments and funding, a standards code, an arbitration service, and a speedy complaint-handling mechanism. Crucially, it must have the power to demand up-front, prominent apologies and impose up to million-pound fines. These are the Leveson principles. They are the central recommendations of the report. If they can be put in place, we truly will have a regulatory system that delivers public confidence, justice for the victims, and a step change in the way the press is regulated in our country. I accept these principles, and I hope that the whole House will come in behind them. The onus should now be on the press to implement them—and implement them radically.
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: The Prime Minister's statement to the House of Commons on 29 November 2012, the day the report was published, and his answers to members' questions on it (Official Report, HC Deb vol 554, from col 446). He speaks for the Government; the site files his words under the Prime Minister's Office.
Site note: The Prime Minister gives this passage once, for the report's proposals for independent self-regulation of the press as a whole ("the Leveson principles", col 448). The same words are recorded on recommendations 1 to 24 and 34 to 47.
Blanket government agreement does not establish acceptance or delivery by each addressee. Some response passages cover groups of recommendations.
Scope of the government response
PM David Cameron responded to all 92 recommendations with a single statement accepting them "in principle" or "in part". No per-recommendation response was published.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Press has been found in the sources searched (last checked 24 February 2026). This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
UK Government (30 October 2013)
4. The Board of the Recognition Panel, in determining an application by a Regulator for recognition, may but need not, take into account any of recommendations 34 to 36 (inclusive), 38, 43, 44 to 45 (inclusive) and 47 in the Summary of Recommendations of the Leveson Report. Where the Recognition Panel is satisfied that a Regulator meets the recognition criteria it shall not refuse to grant recognition to that Regulator by reason of a failure to comply with any of these specified recommendations.
From: Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press
Site note: The passage is the text of the Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, granted on 30 October 2013. The Charter sets up the Recognition Panel and the criteria a press regulator must meet to be recognised. It does not report what any regulator or publisher has done.
Site note: The source gives this passage once, for recommendations 34 to 36, 38, 43, 44, 45 and 47 together. The same words are recorded on L34, L35, L36, L38, L43, L45 and L47. The paragraph lets the Recognition Panel take these recommendations into account but does not require a regulator to meet them.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street
Response - UK Government
Finding