New industry-backed watchdog, successor to the Press Complaints Commission, could be up and running by 1 May

guardian
Mark Sweney

More than 90% of national newspapers and most regional publishers have signed up to the industry’s successor to the Press Complaints Commission, according to the new regulator’s backers.

The architects of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, the rival to the government-backed regulator underpinned by royal charter, held a meeting on Thursday morning to secure the signatures of the vast majority of UK newspaper and magazine publishers.

Paul Vickers, Trinity Mirror’s group legal director and chairman of the industry implementation group overseeing the creation of Ispo, said that new body would be up and running by 1 May.

"The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with publishers representing more than 90% of the national press and the vast majority of the regional press, along with major magazine publishers, signing," said Vickers. "This is an important milestone in the process of setting up the UK’s new self-regulatory system. Ipso will be an independent, tough and effective regulator fully in line with the principles of the Leveson report."

In an internal memo to staff seen by MediaGuardian, Mike Darcey, the chief executive of Sun, Times and Sunday Times publisher News UK, said that it would be a "robust" regulator.

"[Ipso’s] aim is to ensure our award-winning journalism is responsible as well as robust," he said. "We have already strengthened our internal procedures and set ourselves the goal of being the best governed media company in the world, so it is right that we were among the first to sign up".

It is understood that Guardian News & Media, publisher of the Guardian and Observer, the Financial Times and the Independent are among those not to have signed yet.

In Darcey’s internal memo he said that most of the remaining non-signatories "have indicated they will do so in due course".

A Guardian spokesperson said: "The Guardian has not ruled out joining IPSO in the future, but – along with one or two other national papers – has concerns about some aspects of the proposed regulator, which we continue to discuss. We have consistently argued for a regulator that is independent of politicians and credible with the public. We will continue to engage in conversations with all concerned parties in order to help achieve this."