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Keep a McNae’s in your knapsack, Moses urges journalists

Press watchdog Sir Alan Moses urged journalists to keep a copy of McNae’s in their “knapsacks” as he launched the 23rd and latest edition of the media law guide.

The Indepdendent Press Standards Organisation chairman gave the keynote address at a launch event for the new edition of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists held last week.

The updated edition includes new guidance on the changes in press regulation since the Leveson Inquiry and recent changes to the Editor’s Code of Practice.

Sir Alan, pictured at the event below, praised the book for its “clear and correct” explanation of how regulation works and warned journalists to “ignore it at their peril.”

He told the gathering:  “It is not possible to conceive of anyone who wants to be taken seriously as a journalist or as an editor, without McNae’s 23rd edition well-thumbed and inwardly digested in his or her knapsack.

“If you leave it behind, if you ignore it, you do so not only at your own peril but at the peril of all those who fight for and believe in an untamed unruly and a free press.

“We at IPSO must congratulate you on managing to succeed in dispelling ignorance and misinformation in a field so ripe with such vices.

“You at least understand and explain what regulation is about… Chapter 2 gives a clear and correct summary of how regulation works through IPSO and clarifies what has become, all too unnecessarily, opaque and complex; you are one of the few who have understood and because you understand can explain the dreary mechanisms of the Charter and recognition.”

The event, supported by Oxford University Press, was held at the headquarters of News UK at The Shard, London and organised by the National Council for the Training of Journalists.

As well as the current editors, Mike Dodd and Mark Hanna, guests included News UK chief executive officer Rebekah Brooks and the family of the late Leonard McNae, the original author.

10 comments

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  • June 12, 2016 at 6:41 am
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    would this be the same reporters who dump copy straight on to a page from a template?

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  • June 13, 2016 at 9:25 am
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    There was a comment somewhere on HTFP recently about how nervous editors seem to insist on over-attribution from reporters for crime stories dished up by cops. So we get stories peppered pedantically with “police said” or “said police”. I can’t see why. Either it is fact or it isn’t. Saying the police said it won’t help if it is wrong. Or do I need a law update? Reaches for McNae!

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  • June 13, 2016 at 9:34 am
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    Yes like Lensman what’s a knapsack? Surely he means rucksack which is the common term for backpack in the late 20th and early 21st century – both knap and ruck deriving from German btw.

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  • June 13, 2016 at 9:49 am
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    “Guests included News UK chief executive officer Rebekah Brooks…”
    Yeah, she knows all about media law doesn’t she?

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  • June 13, 2016 at 11:15 am
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    @ legal eagle Reporting an official Police statement or comment accurately is protected by Qualified Privilege – a cornerstone of journalism. Perhaps that eagle eye needs glasses.

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  • June 13, 2016 at 1:46 pm
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    Being an educated man, the noble lord is alluding to Napoleon’s oft-quoted comment that every private carries a field-marshal’s baton in his knapsack. Though I’m very possibly the only journalist under 60 in the country who would know that. And I doubt many under 30 have heard of Napoleon, if my experience is any guide. I once had the pleasure of spending three hours rewriting a feature by a specialist defence and maritime reporter who thought the Battle of Waterloo was fought at sea.

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  • June 14, 2016 at 12:01 pm
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    A sub once asked me (at about midnight): “Who’s this guy Major Oak in your story?”
    For the benefit of any uninitiated, the Major Oak is a large tree in Sherwood Forest allegedly linked to Robin Hood.
    If the lazy sub had taken the trouble to read beyond the first two pars he would have come across references to “the ancient tree” on several occasions.
    Or he might even have been educated sufficiently to know the answer from the history lessons they taught in those days.
    Still, at least we had subs then.

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