Standards

The Council's Standards of Practice relating to print and online publishing are contained in:

• two Statements of Principles
• a series of Specific Standards
   

The Council’s Advisory Guidelines may also be taken into account but are not binding Standards.

The Standards of Practice apply to text, headlines, photographs, graphics, captions, audio, video and all other forms of published material, but not to advertising.

Publishers and editors are responsible for taking reasonable steps to comply with the Standards in their print and online publications. This applies to actions by their employees and external contributors, including those who are not journalists.

Publisher members are also obliged under the Council’s Constitution to cooperate with its handling of complaints. This includes publishing all Council adjudications relating to their particular publications.

The Council is undertaking a major Standards Project to review and strengthen the effectiveness of its Standards of Practice. The Project involves revision of existing standards and development of new ones, as well as improved communication of the standards to the media industry and the broader community.

The first phase of the project involved revision of the Council’s Statement of General Principles and development of a series of Specific Standards.

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