COVID-19
- Note on Responsible Reporting
- Guidance for reporting on COVID-19
- Key Worker status letters
- COVID-19 and Independent News Providers Survey
- Further Advice and Support for Journalists
- Standards
- Whistleblowing hotline
- Advisory Notices
Note on Responsible Reporting
To publishers, please remember the importance of reporting responsibly on issues of public health.
To members of the public, if you would like information on how to issue a complaint regarding a publication regulated by IMPRESS, please visit our Complaints page.
>> Relevant clauses of the IMPRESS Standards Code include those on accuracy, discrimination and privacy.
Guidelines for reporting on COVID-19
New guidelines for journalists reporting on COVID-19 have recently been released by Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Director of Research Development and Environment at the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, Cardiff University.
The guidelines, written to support the work of the Welsh NHS Confederation during the ongoing pandemic, contain essential universal advice from which journalists across the UK can benefit in understanding how best to safely cover the crisis, without adding unnecessarily to the exisiting burdens on the national health service.
>> Read guest blog post on the guidance by Matt Walsh, Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University & IMPRESS Code Committee member
>> Read and download the guidance in full.
Key Worker Status Letters
Journalists reporting on COVID-19 have been identified as 'key workers' by the Government. IMPRESS has confirmed with DCMS officials that essential staff in IMPRESS regulated organisations shouldn’t encounter problems while going out to report on the public interest issue of COVID-19.
To help you with this, IMPRESS is issuing personalised letters to members of staff at IMPRESS regulated publications, to confirm that you are an essential worker at a regulated publication.
If you are an essential member of staff at an IMPRESS regulated publication, you can apply for a Key Worker Status Letter here.
>> Read our CEO Ed Procter's article on why we have introduced this scheme.
COVID-19 and Independent News Providers Survey
In partnership with the Public Interest News Foundation, ICNN and Bureau Local, IMPRESS has conducted a survey of independent news publishers in the UK looking at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses.
Survey results show that 75% of independent news providers are at risk of closure due to the ongoing crisis.
>> Read the survey findings in full.
COVID-19: Further Advice and Resources for Journalists
>> Click here to see links to further advice and resources for best-practice and mental health support for journalists covering COVID-19.
Standards
For more information about IMPRESS Standards Code clauses please visit impress.press/standards. You can also download the IMPRESS Standards Code and the Guidance on the IMPRESS Standards Code.
>> Read an article by IMPRESS CEO Ed Procter on the importance of fact-based, high quality reporting of COVID-19.
Whistleblowing hotline
If you work for a news publication and you believe your employer (editor, line manager or other person) is involved in wrongdoing or is encouraging you or others in your workplace to commit unethical or unlawful practices, and you want to report it confidentially, you can contact our whistleblowing hotline run by Protect on 0800 221 8548 at any time.
Advisory notices
If you are experiencing press intrusion, you may make a request to IMPRESS to issue an Advisory Notice to its publishers to give warning or advice about unwelcome press intrusion. We will also consider requests to issue Advisory Notices to publishers that IMPRESS does not regulate, or to request that other regulators issue Advisory Notices.