Moray’s community news service joins national regulatory body

insideMoray regulated by IMPRESS
insideMoray is regulated by IMPRESS

MORAY’S COMMUNITY NEWS has underlined the importance of fair and accurate reporting by signing up for the national media standards body IMPRESS.

Created through a need for an independent press standards regulator, IMPRESS fills a gap in the fast-changing world of news reporting in the UK, recognising that millions of readers are turning to regular daily copy provided by community news services.

Their trusted journalism mark is awarded only to news publishers who meet their standards – allowing such as insideMoray the freedom to report hard-hitting stories with the responsibility to behave fairly if complaints are made against them.

Almost all such complaints will be resolved by the publication and complainer – but IMPRESS will be on hand to decide on complaints that cannot be resolved by the publisher.

IMPRESS is the only press regulator to be recognised as independent and effective under the Royal Charter. They provide an arbitration scheme which is free to the public and protects publishers against the risk of court costs and exemplary damages.

insideMoray Editor Stuart Crowther said: “For three years sites such as insideMoray have been looking over their shoulder at changes to press freedoms in the UK. New regulations have made it very difficult for community news to exist – while as a publisher you always seek to be honest and fair in all you report, you do so always with the underlying threat that things can go wrong.

“Following the success of our recent Crowdfunding bid, my first task was to begin a restructuring of insideMoray and coming under the umbrella of IMPRESS is an important part of that task.

“Now we will move forward and build on the last three years, building on our existing standard of reporting ready to meet the challenges we face in providing a free daily service to many thousands of readers in Moray and beyond.”

Find out more about IMPRESS by visiting www.impress.press or to read the insideMoray complaints procedure visit http://www.insidemoray.com/complaints-procedure/.