IPSO Clause Selector — Which Editors’ Code Clause Applies
The Editors’ Code is sixteen clauses long and most journalists know three of them. The problem in practice is not reading the Code but knowing which clause a situation engages — and whether that clause is one where a public interest justification is even available.
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IPSO Clause Selector
Pick the editorial situation you are dealing with to see which clause(s) of the IPSO Editors’ Code of Practice are most likely to apply, what each requires, and where to read more.
Not legal advice, and not a substitute for the Code. This tool paraphrases clauses to help you navigate them. Always read the current Editors’ Code at ipso.co.uk and see our disclaimer. IPSO regulates most, but not all, UK publishers — some are regulated by IMPRESS or self-regulate.
Select a situation above to see the relevant clause(s).
Clause summaries are paraphrased from the IPSO Editors’ Code of Practice for navigation only. Always rely on the current Code text and take editorial-legal advice on difficult cases. See /disclaimer.
How it works
- One dropdown of sixteen editorial situations, from “publishing a factual claim, headline or image” to “paying a convicted criminal for a story”. Each maps to one or two of the Code’s sixteen clauses.
- For each clause it shows the number and title, a paraphrase of what the clause requires, and a “watch for” line naming the concrete failure — jigsaw identification in child sex cases, irrelevant references to race or disability, undisclosed shareholdings, doorstepping after being asked to stop.
- Clauses the tool marks as asterisked in the Code carry a note that a breach may be defensible where it can be demonstrated to be in the public interest, and any result containing one adds a panel explaining what the exception requires — a demonstrable public interest and, for covert methods, that the material could not be obtained another way.
- Several situations add a cross-link to the fuller guide on this site — privacy, harassment, suicide reporting, children, subterfuge, sexual offence anonymity, source protection and business reporting all route through.
- It states on screen that the summaries are paraphrases for navigation, that the current Code text at ipso.co.uk governs, and that IPSO regulates most but not all UK publishers — some are IMPRESS-regulated and some self-regulate.
When to use it
- When a complaint has come in and you need to know which clause it will be assessed under before you reply.
- When planning a sensitive approach — to the bereaved, to a child, to a hospital — and you want the applicable clause and its exception status before you set off.
- When drafting a public interest justification and you need to know whether the clause you are relying on even admits one.
- As induction material, so a new reporter meets the Code as a set of situations rather than a document.
- When you are covered by IMPRESS or self-regulate, as a map of the same territory under a different code.
What it does not do
- Not legal advice and not the Code. Every clause summary here is a paraphrase written for navigation; the current text at ipso.co.uk is what you will actually be judged against, and the Code is amended from time to time.
- Clause numbering and asterisking are hard-coded in this tool and can drift from the current Code. Check the asterisk on the Code itself before relying on a public interest exception being available for a given clause — a wrong answer there is the difference between a defensible breach and an indefensible one.
- It shows at most two clauses per situation. Real complaints routinely engage three or four at once, and a situation not on the sixteen-item list returns nothing at all.
- It cannot see your copy, your approach or your justification, so it cannot tell you whether a clause has been breached — only which one would be looked at.
- IPSO does not regulate broadcast output, and it does not regulate every publisher. For licensed TV and radio the Ofcom Broadcasting Code applies instead, and it is structured entirely differently.
More tools
This is one of the free tools on UK JournoHub. See the full tools index for the rest.