Lords Committee to take evidence on standards of accuracy in traditional and social media from Yorkshire Post and Tortoise Editors
The House of Lords Committee on Democracy and Digital Technologies will reopen its inquiry this week with evidence from a range of witnesses including James Mitchinson, Editor of the Yorkshire Post.
The Yorkshire Post become the subject of widespread attention during the recent general election when it ran a story on a young boy who was asleep on a hospital floor while awaiting treatment in an NHS Hospital where a bed was not available. The story became the subject of significant debate on social media when posts doubting the accuracy of the Yorkshire Post's story were widely shared.
The controversy around the story during the election campaign period was an example of the different standards of fact checking and accuracy between traditional and social media, an issue the Committee will explore in its inquiry. The inquiry will be the first Parliamentary examination of these issues since the general election.
The Committee will also hear evidence from Matthew d'Ancona, Editor of Tortoise who are focusing on ‘slow news' and in-depth analysis and Jessica Cecil, Director of the BBC Online Project as well as fact checking organisations.
The evidence sessions will start at 10:30am on Tuesday 28 January in Committee 2 of the House of Lords. The full witness details are:
10:30am
- Mr Will Moy, Chief Executive, Full Fact
- Mr Ed Humpherson, Director General of Regulation, Office for Statistics Regulation
- Ms Jenni Sargent, Managing Director, First Draft
- Mr Allan Leonard, Editor in Chief, FactCheck, NI
11:30am
- Ms Jessica Cecil, Director of the BBC Online Project, BBC
- Mr Matthew d'Ancona, Editor and Partner, Tortoise
- Mr James Mitchinson, Editor, Yorkshire Post
