View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
July 24, 2003updated 17 May 2007 11:30am

Broadsheets stand together over ruling

By Press Gazette

By Mary Stevens

In a show of strength, the five national daily broadsheet editors have written to Press Complaints Commission chairman Sir Christopher Meyer protesting at last week’s adjudication against The Guardian.

The letter asks for clause 17 of the Code of Practice, which deals with payment to criminals, to be reviewed. This was the clause which The Guardian was found to have breached, and they feel it is ambiguous. The letter also requested that the code committee takes legal advice as to whether the clause is compatible with the Human Rights Act.

The adjudication found that The Guardian was wrong to pay prisoner John Williams £720, its “standard journalistic fee”, for a diary detailing his encounters with Jeffrey Archer while in prison.

In the same week, it was leaked to The Guardian that the PCC was to exonerate the News of the World for paying £10,000 to convicted criminal Florim Gashi. That adjudication has now been delayed following intervention from the Attorney-General.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said last week that he was “astonished” by the PCC ruling and that he would have little choice but to leave the body if it found another column in the newspaper about prison life, for which the writer is paid, also breaches the code.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

The letter was signed by editors Charles Moore of The Daily Telegraph, Andrew Gowers of the Financial Times, Simon Kelner of The Independent, Robert Thomson of The Times and Rusbridger.

It has been referred to the code committee, which next meets at the end of September.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network