The Express was the UK newsbrand with the most breaches of the Editors’ Code upheld by regulator IPSO in 2024, according to its annual report for the year.
Express.co.uk was ruled to have breached the code seven times last year, but Mail Online (now Daily Mail) had the most breaches upheld according to the publishers’ own annual statements, with five breaches of the Editors’ Code.
IPSO’s count of breaches is based on when complaints are entered into its computer system, whereas the publisher’s own tallies are based on when the complaints are made.
IPSO’s data reported The Times and The Daily Telegraph with three breaches each. The Sun, Mail Online, The Times, Daily Mail, The Star (Sheffield) and birminghammail.co.uk had one breach fully upheld each.
Publisher annual statements revealed The Daily Telegraph to have had four breaches of the code in 2024, followed by The Times and mirror.co.uk with three each. Express.co.uk, manchestereveningnews.co.uk and Sunday World reported two, while the remaining 24 titles recorded one breach.
Reach-owned titles claimed 19 of the 45 breaches recorded by publishers.
IPSO regulates most of the UK’s largest non-broadcast news brands. Some prominent publishers have opted to self-regulate, however, including Guardian News and Media, the Financial Times, the Evening Standard and The Independent.
The most complained about title in 2024 was The Sun with 1,198 complaints across 48 articles.
One Sun articles, headlined “Family’s tributes to sword lad, 14”, accounted for more than 1,000 complaints. They were not investigated as “none had been made on behalf of or with permission of the family; their involvement was needed because of the sensitivity of the issue”, said IPSO. Complainants felt use of the term “sword lad” to describe a murdered child was offensive.
Mail Online trailed The Sun with 830 complaints about 440 articles, followed by The Times (587 complaints about 93 articles) and The Daily Telegraph (354 complaints about 141 articles).
Most of these 4,879 complaints received by IPSO were rejected because they were outside its remit or resolved before the regulator had to make a ruling. Some 307 were investigated – representing about 6.3% of the total: 134 of these were resolved directly between the complainant and the publisher, 72 complaints were not upheld while 43 were.
The number of IPSO complaints recorded in 2024 (4,879) compared with 8,045 in 2023 and 38,658 in 2022.
Notable IPSO rulings in 2024 included:
- Doug Barrowman, the husband of Tory Peer Baroness Michelle Mone, claimed a Daily Mail was inaccurate. Barrowman argued the article, headlined: “How Baroness Bra’s (equally flashy) husband made £300m from dubious tax-avoidance schemes that ruined thousands and led to two suicides”, was wrong as the deaths occurred because HMRC’s conduct in recouping the funds. The complaint was not upheld.
- Mail Online was removed a story describing a village as Britain’s “grimmest” after its MP, Gavin Williamson, complained to IPSO. After the piece was removed from the website, Williamson agreed that this would satisfy him and so IPSO did not determine whether a breach of the code had occurred.
- Essex Police had a complaint against The Telegraph rejected by IPSO following a visit to columnist Allison Pearson by two uniformed officers. The Telegraph reported that she was questioned over an “alleged hate crime”, which the police took issue with.
- Former health secretary Matt Hancock lost an accuracy complaint against the Daily Telegraph over a front-page story based on leaked Whatsapp messages.
- The Sheffield Star received 110 complaints after publishing a reader’s letter describing students campaigning for Palestine as “brainwashed”. IPSO found the newspaper to be in breach of accuracy rules under the Editors’ Code of Practice.
- Aberdeenlive.news reported on the trial of a man who pleaded guilty to rape and assault of the complainant. The complainant said the article reported detail that intruded into her grief and shock, and the complaint was upheld.
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