The Media Standards Trust is a British media

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

formed in 2006. It carries out research on issues in the media sector. It also advocates for press freedom as well as industry quality, transparency and accountability. It is a registered charity and is not aligned with any political party or media company.

Activities

Media Standards Trust hosts debates about standards in the news media, conducts research into areas it considers of concern, hosts online projects, and formerly sponsored the

Orwell Prize The Orwell Prize is a British prize for political writing. The Prize is awarded by The Orwell Foundation, an independent charity (Registered Charity No 1161563, formerly "The Orwell Prize") governed by a board of trustees. Four prizes are award ...

Projects

Journalisted.com

In 2007 the MST founded journalisted.com. The site has an archive of over four million news articles and a database of the work, biographical and contact information of several thousand

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

s. The site scrapes the news articles from several national and local publications, and sorts them according to

byline The byline (or by-line in British English) on a newspaper or magazine article gives the name of the writer of the article. Bylines are commonly placed between the headline and the text of the article, although some magazines (notably '' Reader's ...

. The database is utilized by the MST for conducting research into matters relating to news coverage; a weekly newsletter is published summarizing contemporary trends in news. By December 2018 the site had been taken offline.

Hacked Off

In light of the June 2011 allegations of the ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national "Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top" Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling ...

'' journalists

phone hacking Phone hacking is the practice of exploring a mobile device, often using computer exploits to analyze everything from the lowest memory and CPU levels up to the highest file system and process levels. Modern open source tooling has become f ...

into the mobile phone voice mail of murder victim Milly Dowler, on 5 July 2011 in partnership with Brian Cathcart and other concerned individuals, MST formed the "Hacked Off" campaign, registering the site hackinginquiry.org, and campaigning for a public inquiry into phone hacking. The campaign was directly supported by

Norman Fowler Peter Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler, (born 2 February 1938) is a British politician who served as a member of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major's ministries during the 1980s and 1990s. He held the office of Lord Speaker from 1 September 201 ...

, Onora O'Neill, Francis Wheen, Tom Watson MP, Ben Goldacre, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Sir David Bell, D. D. Guttenplan, Roy Greenslade, Ian Hargreaves, John Lloyd, Isabel Hilton, Ian Jack, John Pilger,

John Prescott John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (31 May 1938 – 20 November 2024) was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the ...

, Richard Peppiatt, Andreas Whittam Smith, J. K. Rowling, and others. Actor

Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received List of awards ...

supported the campaign and became a public spokesperson, appearing on the

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

programmes '' Question Time'' and '' Newsnight''. The campaign was criticised by Lewis Page in ''

The Register ''The Register'' (often also called El Reg) is a British Technology journalism, technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee (journalist), Mike Magee and John Lettice. The online newspaper's Nameplate_(publishing), masthead Logo, s ...

'', who described it as a "secretive pressure group ... of wealthy and powerful individuals and celebrities ... which has successfully campaigned for state control of the media". In 2012, Hacked Off became independent of the Media Standards Trust. Hacked Off produces a magazine, ''Free & Fearless''.

Funding

Foundations which have contributed to the Media Standards Trust include Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

, Eranda Foundation, and

Scott Trust Limited The Scott Trust Limited is the British limited company that owns Guardian Media Group and thus ''The Guardian'' as well as various other media businesses in the UK. It was created to acquire ''The Guardian'' in 1936, and reorganised as a limited ...

. Individuals who have contributed to the Trust include Christopher Stone and Robert Worcester.

People

the director of the Media Standards Trust was Martin Moore. The Joint Executive Directors of Hacked Off are Evan Harris and

Daisy Cooper Daisy Cooper (born 29 October 1981) is a British Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for St Albans (UK Parliament constituency), St Albans s ...

. The Board of Trustees has included: * Sir David Bell (former Chairman,

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

Group) — resigned when he was appointed to Leveson Inquiry * Julia Middleton (CEO, Common Purpose UK) * Sir Cyril Chantler (Chairman, King's Fund) * Sir Robert Worcester (Founder, MORI) * Tim Waterstone (Founder of

Waterstones Waterstones Booksellers Limited, trading as Waterstones (formerly Waterstone's), is a British bookselling, book retailer based in London, England, owned by the American investment group Elliott Investment Management. It operates 311 shops, ma ...

bookstores and Daisy & Tom children's department stores) *

Robert Peston Robert James Kenneth Peston (born 25 April 1960) is an English journalist, presenter, and author. He is the Political Editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show '' Peston'' (previously '' Peston on Sunday'') alongsid ...

(Business Editor,

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

) — resigned in July 2012 * William Davies (

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...

, London) * Roger Graef (Films of Record) * Baroness

Helena Kennedy Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws (born 12 May 1950), is a Scottish barrister, Television presenter, broadcaster, and Labour Party (UK), Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal (academia), Principal of Mansfield Col ...

KC * John McCormick (

Scottish Qualifications Authority The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA; Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic: ''Ùghdarras Theisteanas na h-Alba'') is the Scottish public bodies, executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for accrediting educationa ...

) * Stephen George Platten (Bishop of Wakefield) * Geraint Talfan Davies (Chair, Institute of Welsh Affairs) * Anthony Salz (Executive Vice Chairman, N M Rothschild & Sons) * Sue Stapely (Quiller Consultants/Sue Stapely Consulting) * Amelia Fawcett (Vice Chairman,

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in 42 countries and more than 80,000 employees, the firm's clients in ...

) — resigned in July 2012 * Albert Scardino (journalist, editor) * Sir Philip Otton (retired judge)

References

External links

Media Standards Trust
channel on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

decade-old, no new videos currently being added.
Journalisted.com
Does not seem to be active.
Hacked Off
{{2011–12 News Corporation scandal Political and economic think tanks based in the United Kingdom Charities based in London Journalism ethics Think tanks established in 2006