Codebook Updates MySpace Advice

New advice on using pictures found on social networking websites such as MySpace is included in an update to The Editors’ Codebook.

The revised version features a new section in relation to coverage of a spate of suicides of young people in south Wales, some of whom had profiles on social networking sites.

Before using such material without the family’s consent, the codebook advises that newspaper editors should voluntarily consider the effects its publication could have upon the bereaved.


According to the Press Complaints Commission, this second edition of the codebook has been launched in order to “reflect the rapidly changing media scene”.

It includes the latest landmark cases which have occurred since the first edition in 2005 and a pdf version is available on the website of the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee.

[HT - HoldTheFrontPage.co.uk]