Along with many others, I commend this code of conduct, issued by the late Mike Randall - no relation - when he edited the Daily Mail in the 1960s, and published at a blog called Dysonology.
I hope it was the wish of Dysonology, written by Jack Dyson, the son of one of Randall's reporters of that era, that it should be be seen by as wide an audience as possible; I am sure he will be in touch if he objects to its appearance here.
Credit where it's due: I was shown it at this Dysonology link: http://dysonology.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/memorandum-to-all-staff-daily-mail-ethics-c-1966/
While I am far from sure the rules were always followed by all journalists, or that executives bore them in mind when briefing their staff, there is actually nothing to which any decent person involved in the media can reasonably take offence.
That applies to all sections of the media, not just the Mail, not just tabloids, not even just newspapers. If you have read only a few of Salut!'s many words on Leveson and media standards, you will know I regard intrusion, coercion, dodgy methods generally as an industry-wide issue.
And I still oppose the forthcoming series of show trials of newspaper foot soldiers on criminal charges that arise to a large extent from the misuse of corporate power and, save for the very worst of the cases, could quite adequately be dealt with by internal discipline, redress in the civil courts and, where necessary, punishment of the businesses concerned.
Here is Mike Randall's memo:
1. No member of the staff intrudes or is called on to intrude into private lives where no public interest is involved.
2. No ordinary member of the public is lured, coerced or in any way pressed by a Daily Mail representative into giving an interview or picture which he is clearly unwilling to give.
3. It remains our duty at all times to expose the fraud and reveal the mountebank wherever public interest is involved.
4. In the reporting of Divorce Cases we use our own and not the Judge’s discretion. We give details only where the case and the summing up are of valid legal or public interest. We do not at at any time carry reports which merely hold either party up to ridicule or reveal aspects of their private lives which cannot be any concern of the public.
5. No member of the Daily Mail invents quotes or uses subterfuge to obtain quotes.
6. We are not in business to suppress news. Where anybody is guilty of withholding information that ought to be made public we use every legitimate method to give our readers that information.
7. Daily Mail staff do not allow themselves to be used as vehicles for the promotion of publicity stunts which have no legitimate news value.
8. Anyone who works for the Daily Mail should be a watchdog of our standards and a person who commands public respect.
Wikipedia tells us that Randall lasted in the chair only from 1963-1966, having failed to prevent circulation decline with a mission that involving trying to "take the Mail upmarket, introduce more investigative journalism and attract younger readers with a more liberal position".
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