IPSO rules against Express.co.uk's report of business leader poll
Tim Partlett complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation that express.co.uk breached Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice in an article headlined “Britain will be BETTER OFF after Brexit: Poll shows businesses BRIMMING with confidence”, published on 12 August 2018. The complaint was upheld and express.co.uk has been required to publish this ruling as a remedy to the breach of the Code.
The article reported that a poll, commissioned by a group that represents businesses in the maritime industry, found that most of its members “feel Britain would become stronger after Brexit”. The complainant said that the poll had found no such thing, and the publication had distorted its finding.
Express.co.uk said that the author was entitled to interpret the poll as he saw fit, and had relied on a press release from the business group who had conducted the poll. It said that the article was not a misleading report of the poll.
IPSO found that headline, sub-headline first line of the article had made categorical claims of fact about the findings of the poll which were not supported by the poll data. The publication had failed to take care in reporting the findings of the poll and had given a significantly inaccurate account of its conclusions, in breach of Clause 1.