Alleged press hounding of Arena bomb families 'grave breach', says regulator

  • Granada

Some of the reported activities of journalists in the wake of the Manchester Arena would amount to "grave breaches" of the editors' code if confirmed, the independent press regulator has said.

The Kerslake Report, published in March, found that families of some of those caught up in the tragedy spoke of being "hounded" by the press and shown "a lack of respect", which was denounced by the report's authors as "completely and utterly unacceptable".

The Independent Press Standards Organisation said it had so far been unable to fully investigate the "troubling" accounts, as they did not name the publications allegedly involved.

Ipso has written to Lord Kerslake asking if he has any information to identify those allegedly responsible. It also urged anyone with information to come forward, promising a "thorough investigation" of any complaints.

The media regulator is to consider Lord Kerslake's recommendation of a revamp of its editors' code in the light of the experiences identified by families.

And it announced a series of immediate actions including:

  • The development of a major incident plan to be automatically triggered after any mass casualty event;

  • New guidelines on reporting major incidents and measures to encourage coverage of the issue in journalism training;

  • Closer liaison with emergency and medical services.

Ipso chairman Sir Alan Moses said: