About

 Italian Insider: Italy’s Number 1 English language newspaper

 The Italian Insider aims to provide an objective source of daily news about Italian affairs and the Mediterranean in English for foreign business people who work or want to invest in Italy and for the growing number of expatriate English-speaking communities on the peninsula as well as even-handed reporting for Italians looking for independent coverage that is not always available in local media.

 With news, features and investigations and diplomatic reports from some of the most accomplished and experienced foreign journalists working in Rome and other cities, Italian Insider provides potential access for advertisers and sponsors to an estimated 250,000 English speakers in the Rome area alone.

  Insider has a team of highly experienced journalists each of whom has decades of knowledge of Italy and the Mediterranean. John Phillips has worked for The Times in Rome and the Balkans. His latest book is White Eagle Over Wimbledon. Philip Willan is a correspondent for the London Times and has written and worked on a number of investigative books about Italy and the Vatican. Desmond O’Grady is a correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald. 

Italian Insider Editorial Policy and Code of Practice

Italian Insider adheres to the IPSO Editors’ Code of Practice

https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/

 About the Editors' Code

♣ The Editors’ Code of Practice sets out the rules that newspapers and magazines regulated by IPSO have agreed to follow. 

♣ The Code is written and administered by the Editors’ Code Committee and enforced by IPSO.

♣ The latest version of the Editors’ Code of Practice came into effect on 1 July 2019.

 The Code

 The Code – including this preamble and the public interest exceptions below – sets the framework for the highest professional standards that members of the press subscribing to the Independent Press Standards Organisation have undertaken to maintain. It is the cornerstone of the system of voluntary self-regulation to which they have made a binding contractual commitment. It balances both the rights of the individual and   the public's right to know.

 To achieve that balance, it is essential that an agreed Code be honoured not only to the letter, but in the full spirit. It should be interpreted neither so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights of the individual, nor so broadly that it infringes the fundamental right to freedom of expression – such as to inform, to be partisan, to challenge, shock, be satirical and to entertain – or prevents publication in the public interest.

 It is the responsibility of editors and publishers to apply the Code to editorial material in both printed and online versions of their publications. They should take care to ensure it is observed rigorously by all editorial staff and external contributors, including non-journalists.

 Editors must maintain in-house procedures to resolve complaints swiftly and, where required to do so, co- operate with IPSO. A publication subject to an adverse adjudication must publish it in full and with due prominence, as required by IPSO.

 1. Accuracy

i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.

ii) A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and — where appropriate — an apology published. In cases involving IPSO, due prominence should be as required by the regulator. 

iii) A fair opportunity to reply to significant inaccuracies should be given, when reasonably called for.

iv) The Press, while free to editorialise and campaign, must distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact.

v) A publication must report fairly and accurately the outcome of an action for defamation to which it has been a party, unless an agreed settlement states otherwise, or an agreed statement is published.

 2. *Privacy

i) Everyone is entitled to respect for his or her private and family life, home, health and correspondence, including digital communications.

ii) Editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent. In considering an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy, account will be taken of the complainant's own public disclosures of information and the extent to which the material complained about is already in the public domain or will become so.

iii) It is unacceptable to photograph individuals, without their consent, in public or private places where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.

3. *Harassment

i) Journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit.

ii) They must not persist in questioning, telephoning, pursuing or photographing individuals once asked to desist; nor remain on property when asked to leave and must not follow them. If requested, they must identify themselves and whom they represent.

iii)  Editors must ensure these principles are observed by those working for them and take care not to use non-compliant material from other sources.

4. Intrusion into grief or shock

In cases involving personal grief or shock, enquiries and approaches must be made with sympathy and discretion and publication handled sensitively. These provisions should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.

 5. *Reporting Suicide

When reporting suicide, to prevent simulative acts care should be taken to avoid excessive detail of the method used, while taking into account the media's right to report legal proceedings.

 6. *Children

i) All pupils should be free to complete their time at school without unnecessary intrusion.

ii) They must not be approached or photographed at school without permission of the school authorities.

iii) Children under 16 must not be interviewed or photographed on issues involving their own or another child’s welfare unless a custodial parent or similarly responsible adult consents.

iv) Children under 16 must not be paid for material involving their welfare, nor parents or guardians for material about their children or wards, unless it is clearly in the child's interest.

v) Editors must not use the fame, notoriety or position of a parent or guardian as sole justification for publishing details of a child's private life.

7. *Children in sex cases

The press must not, even if legally free to do so, identify children under 16 who are victims or witnesses in cases involving sex offences.

In any press report of a case involving a sexual offence against a child -

i) The child must not be identified.

ii) The adult may be identified.

iii) The word "incest" must not be used where a child victim might be identified.

iv)  Care must be taken that nothing in the report implies the relationship between the accused and the child.

8. *Hospitals

i) Journalists must identify themselves and obtain permission from a responsible executive before entering non-public areas of hospitals or similar institutions to pursue enquiries.

ii) The restrictions on intruding into privacy are particularly relevant to enquiries about individuals in hospitals or similar institutions.

9. *Reporting of Crime

i) Relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of crime should not generally be identified without their consent, unless they are genuinely relevant to the story.

ii) Particular regard should be paid to the potentially vulnerable position of children under the age of 18 who witness, or are victims of, crime. This should not restrict the right to report legal proceedings.

iii) Editors should generally avoid naming children under the age of 18 after arrest for a criminal offence but before they appear in a youth court unless they can show that the individual’s name is already in the public domain, or that the individual (or, if they are under 16, a custodial parent or similarly responsible adult) has given their consent. This does not restrict the right to name juveniles who appear in a crown court, or whose anonymity is lifted.

10. *Clandestine devices and subterfuge

i) The press must not seek to obtain or publish material acquired by using hidden cameras or clandestine listening devices; or by intercepting private or mobile telephone calls, messages or emails; or by the unauthorised removal of documents or photographs; or by accessing digitally-held information without consent.

ii) Engaging in misrepresentation or subterfuge, including by agents or intermediaries, can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means.

11. Victims of sexual assault

The press must not identify or publish material likely to lead to the identification of a victim of sexual assault unless there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so. Journalists are entitled to make enquiries but must take care and exercise discretion to avoid the unjustified disclosure of the identity of a victim of sexual assault.

12. Discrimination

i) The press must avoid prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual's, race, colour, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or to any physical or mental illness or disability.

ii) Details of an individual's race, colour, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental illness or disability must be avoided unless genuinely relevant to the story.

13. Financial journalism

i) Even where the law does not prohibit it, journalists must not use for their own profit financial information they receive in advance of its general publication, nor should they pass such information to others.

ii) They must not write about shares or securities in whose performance they know that they or their close families have a significant financial interest without disclosing the interest to the editor or financial editor.

iii) They must not buy or sell, either directly or through nominees or agents, shares or securities about which they have written recently or about which they intend to write in the near future.

14. Confidential sources

Journalists have a moral obligation to protect confidential sources of information.

15. Witness payments in criminal trials

i) No payment or offer of payment to a witness – or any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness – should be made in any case once proceedings are active as defined by the Contempt of Court Act 1981. This prohibition lasts until the suspect has been freed unconditionally by police without charge or bail or the proceedings are otherwise discontinued; or has entered a guilty plea to the court; or, in the event of a not guilty plea, the court has announced its verdict.

*ii) Where proceedings are not yet active but are likely and foreseeable, editors must not make or offer payment to any person who may reasonably be expected to be called as a witness, unless the information concerned ought demonstrably to be published in the public interest and there is an over-riding need to   make or promise payment for this to be done; and all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure  no financial dealings influence the evidence those witnesses give. In no circumstances should such payment be conditional on the outcome of a trial.

*iii) Any payment or offer of payment made to a person later cited to give evidence in proceedings must be disclosed to the prosecution and defence. The witness must be advised of this requirement.

16. *Payment to criminals

i) Payment or offers of payment for stories, pictures or information, which seek to exploit a particular crime or to glorify or glamorise crime in general, must not be made directly or via agents to convicted or confessed criminals or to their associates – who may include family, friends and colleagues.

ii) Editors invoking the public interest to justify payment or offers would need to demonstrate that there was good reason to believe the public interest would be served. If, despite payment, no public interest emerged, then the material should not be published.

The Public Interest

There may be exceptions to the clauses marked * where they can be demonstrated to be in the public interest.

1. The public interest includes, but is not confined to:

♣ Detecting or exposing crime, or the threat of crime, or serious impropriety.

♣ Protecting public health or safety.

♣ Protecting the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation.

♣ Disclosing a person or organisation’s failure or likely failure to comply with any obligation to which they are subject.

♣ Disclosing a miscarriage of justice.

♣ Raising or contributing to a matter of public debate, including serious cases of impropriety, unethical conduct or incompetence concerning the public.

♣ Disclosing concealment, or likely concealment, of any of the above.

2. There is a public interest in freedom of expression itself.

3. The regulator will consider the extent to which material is already in the public domain or will become so.

4. Editors invoking the public interest will need to demonstrate that they reasonably believed publication - or journalistic activity taken with a view to publication – would both serve, and be proportionate to, the public interest and explain how they reached that decision at the time.

5. An exceptional public interest would need to be demonstrated to over-ride the normally paramount interests of children under 16.

Editors’ Code of Practice ©2019 Regulatory Funding Company

 

Complaints procedure

How do I complain?

 Please read the Editorial Code first to understand whether the editor can look into your complaint. You can then email the editor’s office directly on info@italianinsider.it or write to editor, The Italian Insider, Via dell'Umiltà 83c, 00187 outlining the following points:

·      The article you’re complaining about.

·      The date on which it appeared.

·      Whether the article appeared in print or online.

·      The nature of your complaint in no more than 500 words.

·      Which part of the Editorial Code it breaches.

 You can also get in touch with the readers’ editor’s office by phone on 39-333-207-8259 between 10am and 1pm Monday to Friday Rome time.

 Please note that in making a complaint, you agree to respond promptly to any request for further information. Our complaints process is free of charge, regardless of outcome.

 We reserve the right to amend this policy as required. We will publish the current policy on our website. Your complaint will be considered against the published policy on the date of receipt of your complaint.

What happens to your complaint?

 Once we’ve received your complaint, you should receive an automated reply acknowledging receipt. If your complaint is being taken up, we aim to contact you within 72 hours.

 We aim to give a substantive response to your complaint within 28 days of receiving all the necessary information to allow us to investigate. However, this may take longer in more complex cases where more information is required, or where journalists are away or unreachable.

 If we receive multiple complaints about the same issue we may not respond to all.

 If the editor deems there to have been a breach of the Insider Editorial Code, he will suggest an appropriate remedy. Corrections and clarifications will appear on the relevant web page and/or in the newspaper.

 We will always aim to handle your complaint fairly, courteously and with respect.    We expect the same behaviour from complainants and reserve the right to decline to consider complaints that are abusive or gratuitously offensive.

 If at any stage of your complaint we do not hear back from you within 28 days, we will consider your complaint satisfied and closed.

Appeal process

 If you are unhappy with our final response to your complaint the readers’ editor will direct you to the Review Panel, which provides an external review of the decision of the readers’ editor.

 Should your complaint reach this stage, the readers’ editor will send you all the information you need to appeal to the Review Panel.

Corrections/Broken Links

 If you’ve spotted a mistake in our copy please let us know so that we can fix it.

  Whistleblower Policy

 

 1. PURPOSE

 The purpose of this Policy is to:

  • support and reflect Italian Insider’s Editorial Policy;
  • ensure that individuals who disclose wrongdoing can do so safely, securely, and with confidence that they will be protected and supported;
  • ensure that disclosures of wrongdoing are dealt with appropriately and promptly;
  • build confidence and trust in this Policy, its processes and procedures including by providing transparency around the Insider’s framework for receiving, handling and investigating such disclosures; and
  • deter wrongdoing and encourage disclosures of wrongdoing.

 

 Reports may be made under this Policy by any current or former:

  • officer or employee of Italian Insider (including permanent, part-time, fixed-term or temporary, interns, secondees, managers and directors);
  • suppliers, consultants, and contractors of Insider (including their employees, whether paid or unpaid);
  • associates of Insider (e.g. a director or company secretary of a related body corporate of Insider); and
  • relatives, spouses and dependents of any of the above individuals.

 A Discloser is any of the above individuals who makes a report in accordance with this Policy.

 4. ISSUES THAT SHOULD BE REPORTED

 A Reportable Matter means any information about Insider (or an officer or employee of Insider) that the Discloser has reasonable grounds to suspect concerns misconduct, or an improper state of affairs or circumstances in relation to Insider.
This includes where the Discloser has reasonable grounds to suspect that the information indicates Insider or any of its employees or officers has or may have engaged in conduct that:

  • represents a danger to the public or the financial system (even if it does not involve a contravention of a particular law);
  • is a serious breach of any internal policy or code of Insider;
  • is illegal (such as theft, use of illicit drugs, violence or criminal damage against property);
  • constitutes dishonest, fraudulent or corrupt activity, including bribery, tax evasion, money laundering or misappropriation of funds
  • constitutes a danger to health and safety at Insider;
  • causing or threatening to cause Detriment to a Discloser who has made a report under this Policy, or who is believed or suspected to have made or be planning to make a report under this Policy; and
  • the deliberate concealment of any of the above matters.

 Reasonable Grounds

A Discloser must have reasonable grounds for a report made under this Policy. A mere allegation with no supporting information is unlikely to be considered as having reasonable grounds. However, a Discloser does not need to prove their allegations. A Discloser will still qualify for protection under this Policy even if their disclosure turns out to be incorrect.

 False Reports

The reporting of false information is taken very seriously by Insider. Individuals who deliberately or knowingly report false information will not be able to access the protections available under this Policy for Disclosers, or any legal protections, and individuals who are employees, officers or contractors of Insider may be subject to disciplinary action or termination of engagement

 5. HOW TO MAKE A REPORT

The following channels are available for reporting Reportable Matters. If a Discloser has any questions or wishes to obtain additional information before making a report, he or she should obtain independent legal advice.

 Reporting by Employees

Employees should first report any matters of concern to their direct line manager or human resources advisor. Where this is not appropriate, where the employee does not feel comfortable making an internal report, or where an employee has made an internal report but no action has been taken within a reasonable time, a report can be made using the reporting channels outlined below.

 Business Conduct and Ethics

Any Discloser may make a report via e-mail, phone or the Insider website, anonymously if they wish.

 Report to an Eligible Recipient

 If a Discloser is unable to use any of the above channels for reporting, a report can be made to an Eligible Recipient within Insider. Eligible Recipients in relation to Insider are:

  • officers, directors and senior managers;
  • internal or external auditors, or a member of an audit team conducting an audit.

 When making a report to an Eligible Recipient, the Discloser must first inform the Eligible Recipient that they wish to make a report under this Policy, so that the Eligible Recipient can make appropriate arrangements in relation to confidentiality.

 6. CONFIDENTIALITY AND ANONYMITY

 Anonymous Reports

 Disclosers are encouraged (but not required) to disclose their identity when making a report. Reports may be made on an anonymous basis; however, Disclosers providing their identity will assist in:

  • monitoring their wellness and protections against Detriment and
  • investigating their report and obtaining further information from them as is necessary to complete the investigation.

 If the Discloser wishes to remain anonymous, the matter may be referred for investigation, but the investigator will be required to take all reasonable steps to reduce the risk that the Discloser will be identified as a result of the investigation.

 7. PROTECTION AND SUPPORT FOR DISCLOSERS

 Prohibition of Reprisals

 It is a breach of this Policy to subject a Discloser to any Detriment because they have made, or propose to make, a report under this Policy. It is also a breach of this Policy to make a threat to cause Detriment to a Discloser (or another person) in relation to a report. Any such retaliatory action will be treated as serious misconduct, and will be dealt with in accordance with Insider’s disciplinary procedures.
 “Detriment” includes (without limitation):

  • dismissal;
  • injury of an employee in his or her employment;
  • alteration of an employee’s position or duties to his or her disadvantage;
  • discrimination between an employee and other employees of the same employer;
  • harassment or intimidation;
  • harm or injury (including psychological harm);
  • damage to a person’s property; and
  • reputational, financial or any other damage to a person.

 Investigation outcomes

The outcome of the investigation may result in disciplinary action for officers and employees up to and including dismissal without notice. Serious criminal matters will be reported to the police or the appropriate regulatory authorities.

 Confidentiality

 Participants in the investigation of any report under this Policy are required to keep confidential all relevant information. All paper and electronic documents and other materials relating to reports will be stored securely, and access to all information relating to a report will be limited to those directly involved in managing and investigating the report.
 Disclosers should also keep confidential the fact that they have made a report, and the content of the report, as well as all information relating to an investigation of their report.

 jp-cc

 

 

14 Mar 2011