IPSO takes editors’ code of practice hotline deadly serious

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) must take their job very serious because they have just announced new plans to enhance their dedicated whistleblowers’ hotline.

The service, which provides an independent and confidential service for any journalist who feels they are being pressured to act in a way that is not in line with the Editors’ Code of Practice, has been operated by IPSO for more than a year during office hours and is now being extended to a 24-hour service.

Journalists who work for any of IPSO’s 2,500 regulated publications and would like to confidentially register their concerns or seek advice can call the hotline on 0800 032 0243, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The new service is being outsourced to s specialist call handler company “to ensure confidentiality and protection for the whistleblower.”

Speaking about the new service, Charlotte Urwin, IPSO’s Head of Standards said: “Journalists should never feel under pressure to act in a way that is contrary to the Editors’ Code. The provision of a whistleblowers’ hotline, so that they can raise concerns, is a crucial part of the work of an independent and effective press regulator. By contracting with an experienced external provider who has considerable knowledge of providing similar services to a number of private and public sector institutions, IPSO is confident that the hotline meets the very highest standards available.”

You would expect the extension of this service is due to unprecedented demand from overly worried journalists pressurised into bending the rules by editors desperate to meet commercial demands.

Well not quite.

According to The Press Gazette the IPSO whistleblowers’ hotline may have only received two calls and both issues were considered minor. You would hope that the independent organisation employed to manage the hotline are not being paid on call volume alone.

The creation of a whistleblowing hotline for journalists was recommended in the Leveson Report. IPSO later faced criticism for failing to launch the service in good time.