Industry regulator 'only game in town' says ex-Sun managing editor

Categories: Latest News
Tuesday May 20 2014
The Guardian revisits the issue of press regulation post Leveson Inquiry, with publication of comments aired by a senior civil servant and former managing editor of The Sun praising the industry’s proposed regulator, Ipso.
Richard Caseby, a director of communications for the Department of Work and Pensions spoke of the industry’s proposed regulator as the ‘only game in town’ and claimed the Guardian should be ‘blackballed’ from joining for its poor record on ‘accuracy’ issues.
The issue of press regulation has rumbled along since the adoption of the cross party Royal Charter last year and has become topical again as the industry pushes to inflict its regulatory body onto the industry with clear determination not to seek recognition by the Recognition Panel established by the Royal Charter. Concerns with the industry’s regulator remain with the Media Standards Trust highlighting the various inadequacies with Ipso in meeting the Leveson recommendations and the degree to which is too closely resembles the extant regulator, the Press Complaints Commission, with all its functional and operating weaknesses.
Caseby’s praise for Ipso and his claims of its being the ‘only game in town’ is perhaps to be expected given his former employer (News International) and the key media outlets driving Ipso; Telegraph Media Group, Daily Mail and News International. But Caseby’s claims that the Guardian has a problem with ‘accuracy’ is perhaps rich given the evidence available on the Daily Mail’s surpassing all titles on press standards.