As part of iMediaEthics’ review of UK publications’ 2015 round-up of complaints, we take a look at Trinity Mirror’s report to press regulator the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).
Trinity Mirror owns “5 National Newspapers, 106 Regional Newspapers… and 32 websites” producing “approximately 1.3 million articles” in print and “more than 528,000 articles online.”
IPSO only ruled the company’s papers broke the code five times, dismissed 48 complaints and mediated seven complaints. (IPSO ruled against Local World twice, dismissed 16 complaints and mediated five complaints.)
iMediaEthics has written to Trinity Mirror to ask for further comment about its IPSO submission including how few times the company was ruled against.
The five national newspapers are The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People, Daily Record, Sunday People and The New Day. Trinity Mirror noted in November it bought Local World Ltd which made it “the largest regional newspaper publisher,” so it separated matters related to Local World. The full list of newspapers and news sites owned by Trinity Mirror and Local World is published at the end of the report.
Typically, complaints about Trinity Mirror content are filed through IPSO, its own complaints forms, direct contact with the newspaper and complaints via lawyers. It typically took four days for Trinity Mirror “to respond substantively to a complaint,” the report said.
According to the report, complaints are sent to Legal and Compliance. Journalists are required to take a “legal training course…every two years,” take a test on the IPSO code when hired, and complete any other relevant seminars.
The full Trinity Mirror/Local World report is here.
Just this month, Trinity Mirror settled 21 lawsuits over phone hacking at its newspapers, as iMediaEthics reported. Last summer, the Mirror Group settled three lawsuits over phone hacking and in February, published a print and online apology admitting some staff used hacking to obtain stories.
