All posts tagged: IPSO rulings

Huw Edwards loses Daily Mail complaint and bemoans IPSO ‘travesty’

Huw Edwards loses Daily Mail complaint and bemoans IPSO ‘travesty’

Published by Sam Flores

Huw Edwards photo issued by the Metropolitan Police to mark his sentencing on 16 September 2024. Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire Disgraced ex-BBC News presenter Huw Edwards has lost a privacy and accuracy complaint against the Daily Mail. Edwards, who admitted having indecent images of children in 2024 and served a six-month suspended sentence, called UK press regulation a “travesty” in his response on Substack. Edwards complained about an article headlined “Retired teacher giving Huw ’emotional support’” published in December 2025. The article reported on claims from sources in his local area that he had “formed a close bond with” a woman who he had been “leaning on for ’emotional support’” and been seen with publicly. It reported: “She is said to have been counselling Edwards.” The article also included details of the village where Edwards lived and who he lived with. Edwards accused the Daily Mail of breaching his privacy in publishing information about his friendship and his living arrangements without it being in the public interest. The Daily Mail offered to remove the online …

IPSO complaint against Press Gazette upheld over alleged sex offence admission

IPSO complaint against Press Gazette upheld over alleged sex offence admission

Published by Sam Flores

Press Gazette story subject to upheld IPSO ruling, and IPSO Mark. Press regulator IPSO has found Press Gazette breached accuracy rules with a report that included an allegation that a former councillor admitted a sexual offence without making clear he denied doing so. Former North Northamptonshire councillor Matthew Binley complained about a sub-headline that said he “admitted to having sex with a 14-year-old when in his twenties”. He told IPSO that at the council meeting where he allegedly made the admission, he had only acknowledged that police had investigated a historic allegation against him from 2009 and he had not said it was true. The allegation was included in a Press Gazette story, published in August last year, about journalist Sarah Ward being given a harassment warning by Northamptonshire Police for sending multiple ‘right of reply’ emails to Binley. Ward, who edits Substack-based local news outlet NN Journal, had published four articles relating to “historic allegations” against Binley, which he denies. He subsequently complained to police about harassment and an officer warned Ward she faced …

IPSO: Times OK to say BBC ignored Bill Gates climate U-turn despite Today coverage

IPSO: Times OK to say BBC ignored Bill Gates climate U-turn despite Today coverage

Published by Sam Flores

Bill Gates pictured in October 2023. Picture: Shutterstock/Alexandros Michailidis The Times was entitled to say in a leader column that the BBC produced “no coverage” of an intervention by Bill Gates on climate change despite it being discussed on Radio 4’s flagship Today programme, press regulator IPSO has found. During the week of 3 November, the story was discussed for several minutes on the Today programme, for around seven minutes on BBC Radio Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and for two minutes on a BBC World Service Newshour segment. The Times had used it as an example of what the BBC chooses not to cover in a critical leader column the following week. It said that “one of the BBC’s biggest problems is not just what it covers, but what it chooses not to cover. For example, there was no coverage of Bill Gates’s rethink on climate change last week – a significant intervention from one of the world’s richest men – presumably because it did not fit with a metropolitan world view.” The Energy and …

Cornwall Live showed potentially identified sex offence victim, IPSO

Cornwall Live showed potentially identified sex offence victim, IPSO

Published by Sam Flores

Screenshot of Cornwall Live adjudication on 19 May 2026 Press regulator IPSO criticised a “lack of sympathy” from Reach local news website Cornwall Live which it ruled had published details that could have identified a sexual assault victim. IPSO said an article published last year about a man jailed for sexual offences against children included several details that together could have identified the victims. They included the defendant’s connection to a specific activity with which one of the victims was involved, the victims’ ages at the time of the offences, the number of victims and their genders, and the duration of the offences which occurred at the same location. One of the victims in the case believed the details had led to him being identified, with people reaching out to him to say “they were sorry to hear what had happened”, according to the IPSO ruling. Victims of sexual offences are automatically given lifelong anonymity both in UK law and under the Editors’ Code of Practice, of which Clause 11 (Victims of sexual assault) states: …

Telegraph recorded most Editors’ Code breaches in 2025

Telegraph recorded most Editors’ Code breaches in 2025

Published by Sam Flores

Telegraph front page on 23 January 2025 with splash headline: “One in 12 in London is illegal migrant” The Telegraph was the UK newsbrand with the most breaches of the Editors’ Code upheld by regulator IPSO in 2025, according to its annual report for the year. The Telegraph was found to have breached the code 12 times last year across website and print, with eleven complaints partially upheld and one fully upheld (seven on the Daily Telegraph, four on Telegraph.co.uk and one for the Sunday Telegraph). The Express was found to have breached the Editors’ Code six times last year, but had the most complaints fully upheld by IPSO at three. Last year Press Gazette found the title had 12 breaches of the Editors’ Code upheld by IPSO in 2025 (going by date of published adjudications, as opposed to IPSO’s annual report which is based on when complaints are entered into its computer system). IPSO’s data reported dailymail.co.uk (previously Mail Online), Daily Mail, The National and mirror.co.uk with two breaches each. Two fully upheld complaints …

Irish News wrong to allege ‘serious editorial misconduct’ on Stephen Nolan show, says IPSO

Irish News wrong to allege ‘serious editorial misconduct’ on Stephen Nolan show, says IPSO

Published by Sam Flores

Stephen Nolan. BBC Northern Ireland has won a complaint against the Irish News over four articles that alleged staff had been “planted” in the audience of presenter Stephen Nolan’s TV show. Press regulator IPSO found the Irish News had “overstated” the nature of audience manipulation allegations shared with it by a source. Rather than staff posing as audience members, IPSO said, the source’s description appeared to match up better with the BBC’s position: that “spotters” would point out people who wished to participate for the production staff to call upon. The allegations relating to Nolan Live were reported in four articles over the course of five days in August 2023. IPSO said the inaccuracy was significant because it “represented a serious allegation of editorial misconduct that could have serious reputational implications” both for the BBC and individuals working on the programme. IPSO added that the Irish News had failed to provide the allegations to the BBC ahead of the first article, which related mainly to the “work environment” of the programme but included references to …

Reach website rapped over ‘significantly misleading’ pensions headline

Reach website rapped over ‘significantly misleading’ pensions headline

Published by Sam Flores

Birmingham Live correction page for state pension story, dated 20 March 2026 Reach website Birmingham Live published a “significantly misleading” headline about the state pension age, press regulator IPSO has found. It is the fourth Birmingham Live headline to have been ruled misleading by IPSO in just over a year. Reach national title the Daily Express had 12 similar upheld complaints in 2025, largely relating to economic policy. The latest Birmingham Live complaint was submitted by Iona Bain, a freelance financial journalist who is the resident money expert on BBC Morning Live and money columnist for The Observer. The article, published in August, was headlined: “State pensioners set to receive state pension for ‘just three years of lifetime’.” An image caption repeated the same wording. The article, setting out what would happen if a proposal to increase the state pension age to 70 was followed, contained a quote from an expert speculating that people in Blackpool, where the average male life expectancy is the lowest in the country at 73, would not receive their full …

Daily Mail corrects electric car story after Yougov poll finds public were misled

Daily Mail corrects electric car story after Yougov poll finds public were misled

Published by Sam Flores

Man using smartphone app while standing next to his electric car charging. Picture: Shutterstock/Sergii Kozii Polling on whether the public had been misled by a Daily Mail story forced press regulator IPSO to rethink its decision to reject a complaint. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a UK non-profit group aiming to support informed debate on energy issues, objected to the way the Daily Mail compared the price of an average petrol car versus an one. The online story, published in July 2025, covered criticism of Labour’s £650m pot of grant funding to support the purchase of electric vehicles. The Daily Mail reported: “Many drivers have been put off by the price of electric cars, which average around £50,000, more than double the cost of a petrol car at around £22,000, according to Nimblefins.” ECIU argued the article was misleading because this was a flawed comparison. It said Nimblefins had referred to the average price of a “small car” as £22,022, the average price of a “popular medium-sized car” as £27,168, and the average …

Telegraph declines to tell regulator how fake banker story got published

Telegraph declines to tell regulator how fake banker story got published

Published by Sam Flores

Telegraph school fees article The Telegraph has refused to tell press regulator IPSO how an article about a made-up banker supposedly impacted by school fee increases came to be published. The article, headlined “We earn £345k, but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays”, was published and quickly withdrawn in June last year. Despite speculation that the article had been written using AI, Press Gazette confirmed it had been written by a real journalist and was based on a phone interview set up by a PR working for financial planning firm Saltus whose school fees research was referenced in the story. The journalist appears to have been deceived by the man on the phone who gave a fake name. Freelance journalist Ian Fraser raised concerns about the piece and the fact he could find no trace of bankers named Al and Alexandra Moy, the subjects of the piece, anywhere else online. He also noted the pictures of a family used in the article were stock images taken in 2012 and 2014. …