Hacked Off respond to revelations that the Mail have been found uncredible as a news source by Microsoft browser add-on NewsGuard:
“A powerful and saddening indictment of the absence of regulation for most British newspapers.”
This is what happens when newspapers are not independently regulated: fake news in national newspapers goes uncorrected, innocent people like the Gatwick couple are victimised and public confidence in the reliability of the press collapses.
Yet the Mail and other British newspapers have persisted in refusing to join an independent regulator; instead remaining members of the industry association established to shelter them from accountability, IPSO.
If they stand by their product, then why not be independently accountable like all broadcast media?
This latest revelation – that the MailOnline have been found to hold a one out of five credibility rating by an independent company – is a powerful and saddening indictment of the absence of independent regulation for most British newspapers.
The MailOnline and other IPSO members are responsible for a devastating collapse in trust across the industry, which is having a detrimental effect on our democratic society and destroying the public’s faith in journalism.
This should be our wake-up call. We’ve got to defend fact-based journalism and ensure the public can once again have faith in our news media.
