Letter from nine victims of smears and fake news calls for action on ‘serious and systemic breaches’ of code
Press regulator IPSO – run by ‘mainstream’ media organisations for themselves and often condemned for its lack of action against its member publications – is looking at a ‘Standards Investigation’ into the appalling record of the Jewish Chronicle.
IPSO has agreed to look at a request from Cllr Jo Bird, the latest victim to win an IPSO ruling against a Chronicle’s smear – and Bird, along with eight other victims, has written to IPSO chair Lord Faulks to ask him to circulate information about the paper’s misdeeds to IPSO board members:
Dear Lord Faulks,
We welcome IPSO’s agreement to consider Jo Bird’s proposal for a Standards Investigation into the Jewish Chronicle and we urge you to launch such an investigation without delay. With 28 recorded breaches of the Editors’ Code and four libel defeats in just three years, it is clear that the paper’s editorial standards are shockingly low and IPSO’s actions to date have made no difference.
We have all either seen our complaints to IPSO about the Jewish Chronicle’s bad journalism upheld or secured admissions of libel from the paper. Unless standards there improve there will be more victims, while readers will continue to be misled.
IPSO’s regulations say a Standards Investigation can take place where there is evidence of ‘serious and systemic breaches of the code’. The seriousness of the breaches by the Jewish Chronicle is attested to in IPSO’s own rulings while the sheer number of breaches and libel defeats – taking place at a small publication that appears only weekly – proves the problem is systemic.
We would be grateful if you would circulate this letter to all IPSO board members and to senior management.
Yours,
Jo Bird
John Davies
Ibrahim Hewitt
Jenny Lennox
Kal Ross
Mike Sivier
Thomas Suarez
Marc Wadsworth
Audrey White
Watch the short video below for more information on some of the paper’s appalling breaches of truth and accuracy:
A decision from IPSO is due by Thursday next week.
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