Reporting asylum - ICAR

efugees.Although the Guidance Note makes reference to the Accuracy clause of the Editor’s Code, it does not fullyexplain the content of that clause or how it applies to reporting asylum seekers and refugees. Although this projectonly had resources to investigate in detail a small number of articles, a range of inaccuracies were found, includingmisuse of statistics, groundless claims, misrepresentation and confusion of comment, conjecture and fact. Whilstit is acknowledged that asylum is a complex issue and that the daily pressures of a newsroom make accurate andinformative reporting of this subject a challenging task, it is a cause for concern that the inaccuracies uncoveredby this research often relate to fear inducing subjects and/or hostile views, blurring the distinction between fact,comment and conjecture and inaccurate use of statistics. In order to adequately respond to these practices theGuidance Note could be strengthened by giving more information about how to comply with Clause 1.The inclusion in the Guidance Note of the statement:‘the Commission - in previous adjudications under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Code - has underlined the dangerthat inaccurate, misleading or distorted reporting may generate an atmosphere of fear and hostility that is notborne out by the facts.’is a step in the right direction but needs more explanation. It makes clear that reporting which is ‘undulyhostile’ i.e. contains hostile remarks based on inaccuracy, is proscribed. It is not clear how far hostile reportingis permissible when it is based on accurate information, or, as is extremely common, hostile allegations arecontained in opinion pieces which present little or no factual information, accurate or otherwise. ICAR believesthat in most cases, hostile reporting based on accurate information is fair comment and hostile reporting withlittle factual content falls short of best practice but should not be proscribed by the PCC. However, ICAR feelsit is important to make clear that some instances of hostile reporting are sufficiently extreme to be consideredinflammatory and raise concerns under the Public Order Act, and that this applies whether they containinaccurate information, accurate information, or no factual content.41 headlines were found in the sample which make reference to asylum or immigration in a potentiallyinflammatory way. Over half of the potentially inflammatory headlines appeared in the top six most populardaily national papers - one in 25 articles on asylum in the top six national dailies has a potentially inflammatoryheadline that explicitly refers to asylum or immigration.The words and phrases used in such headlines should not automatically be considered inflammatory, but ICARdoes believe it would be helpful for the PCC to bring to the attention of editors the danger that certain wordsand phrases risk being considered inflammatory, taking into account other aspects of reporting, and that this isespecially true for headlines. The Guidance Note should provide further clarification of these points.Although the Editor’s Codebook states that: ‘the Code applies to all editorial staff…. and to contributed editorialmaterial, such as agency copy - and readers’ letters’ (107) the PCC rarely comments on letters published innewspapers. In the light of the evidence found of hostile, unsubstantiated, misinformed and racist material inletters, further guidance on publication of letters is important.TABLE 5.2 Examples from this sample of level 2 Journalism: Journalism that would appear not to meetregulatory requirements - if our recommended changes to the Code and Guidance Note were implemented.Headline,paper, dateRelevantquotesand/ordescription‘Spongers face boot; Clarke gets tough on migrants’, Daily Star, February 7‘Determined ministers will launch a crackdown today on spongeing [sic] immigrants… HomeSecretary Charles Clarke is to unveil plans to boot out unskilled asylum seekers… All refugeeswould be barred, except skilled professionals such as doctors and teachers… The move comesafter ministers admitted our hospitality has been stretched by spongeing [sic] asylum seekerspouring through Britain’s borders… [Clarke] said there was no “absolute figure” for economicmigrants but around 140,000 people a year come to Britain to work… Each immigrant willhave to pass English tests’107 The Editors Code of Practice Committee (2005) : The editors codebook, page7130Reporting asylum