In 2022 Impress conducted a public consultation on proposed changes to its Standards Code and guidance. These are the rules by which we regulate the news gathering activities of our regulated publications.
From November 2020 to late 2022, Impress consulted with the journalism industry, civic society and the public through our Code Review process to seek insights and expertise on how journalism standards could be updated to ensure they remained fit for purpose for the future of journalism.
As part of this process, Impress ran a six week public consultation on proposed changes to the Standards Code and Guidance which closed on 8 April 2022. These proposals included changes to reflect the rise of journalism online and proposals which seek to make the standards code more equitable, including lowering the threshold for what amounts to discrimination and re-centering children’s rights and safeguarding needs with regards to the media.
Code consultation paper
This document contextualises and explains changes to the Impress Standards Code and Guidance proposed by the Code Committee as a result of the Code Review process. The paper also outlines the consultation questions that respondents addressed in their submissions when providing feedback on the Code updates.
