Peter Riddell calls for new press regulator to talk to Full Fact

Rt. Hon. Peter Riddell CBE gave the Beveridge Lecture at the Royal Statistical Society last week. Mr Riddell is Director of the Institute for Government. Before that he was a journalist for nearly 40 years, split between the Financial Times and The Times. He said —

"I think the new press regulator would do well to talk to Full Fact, as well as the RSS, and regard this work of statistical integrity as central to its remit.

It's not just unethical intrusions and false allegations that so damage the press, it's also the misleading use of statistics and factual information, and indeed I think that's much harder to correct than allegations about people's personal lives.

The media are very slow to correct such misreporting of fact and I think there is a big task there and I think there is an interesting opening with the new press regulator."

Nine out of ten complaints to the existing Press Complaints Commission involve accuracy, either alone or in combination with other grounds.

Full Fact approached IPSO in May, and the new Chair expressed his willingness to meet, but no meeting has yet been arranged.