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When I turned 18, I could have been sent to jail as a gay man. 

I could have been jailed again in my thirties for living with my partner who was just twenty. We’ve now made it through forty years together unincarcerated, but countless people around the world are still imprisoned, murdered or ostracised for who they sleep with. 

Even here in the UK, daily threats and insults are made against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and non-binary people. Those who express a different gender from their sex at birth have become the target of particularly cruel abuse, accusation, and ridicule, simply for failing to conform to someone else’s version of normality. 

Discriminating against any minority group, not for any harm they do but just for how they look, what they believe or how they were born, risks inviting others to discriminate against us too.

It’s the role of a free press to scrutinise laws, public policies, and the behaviour of institutions, groups and individuals. While doing that, not just the law, but any civilised code of journalistic ethics, requires us to avoid inciting hatred or violence towards people going about their lawful business. 

Good journalism will report these matters, seeking to understand and explain what causes people to despise or to fear those who are just different.

But responsible journalism should never do anything to encourage that hatred or discrimination.  

By Richard Ayre
Chair, Impress

This newsletter is taken from new Impress guidance on tackling homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in the media.

About Richard

Richard has had a career in journalism spanning forty years, beginning in the early 1970s at the BBC in Belfast and going on to become the corporation’s controller of editorial policy and deputy chief executive of BBC News. He is a former member of the Ofcom Content Board and chair of its Broadcast Review Committee, and also chaired Article 19, the international freedom of expression charity. For fourteen years he was the Law Society’s freedom of information adjudicator before returning to the BBC as a member of the BBC Trust and chair of its editorial standards committee.

About Impress 

Impress is a champion for news that can be trusted. We are here to make sure news providers can publish with integrity; and the public can engage in an ever-changing media landscape with confidence. We set the highest regulatory standards for news, offer education to help people make informed choices and provide resolution when disputes arise. 

Media enquiries

Louie Chandler: louie@impressorg.com / 02033076778