Do not police opinion

The Independent Press Standards Organisation, which regulates this newspaper, is meant to focus on accuracy and basic standards – things The Daily Telegraph passionately believes in. But there are fears that it could endorse the policing of opinion. Drafts of new guidance on reporting of Islam, Muslims and Islamism have been leaked to Policy Exchange and, as Will Heaven writes opposite, they do not bode well. Editors are told to “be aware that their content can have an impact … on how minority communities are treated” and that “unbalanced coverage can work to increase tension”.

It sounds vague, but that’s half the problem: it could inject an element of subjectivity into regulation. How does one report on something like the Rotherham child abuse case without touching on the ethnic identities of the men involved? Is the journalist’s first responsibility towards the truth, and their readers, or to community relations? The very idea that commentators are responsible for prevailing social conditions is absurd, and risks handing those who fear criticism an excuse to shut down debate.

Commentary can be subjectively interpreted. When the Prime Minister wrote a column in this newspaper in which he resolutely defended the right to wear the burka, he leavened it with a joke about letterboxes. His opponents have manipulated that language to make a liberal article sound illiberal. It is shameless. Thankfully, sophisticated readers can see straight through it.

Journalists must be free to report the truth and commentators to provide analysis that reflects their conscience, rooted in the facts. We will resist any attempt to limit free speech in our pages.