The Editors' Code of Practice is the foundation stone of the UK press self-regulatory system. It sets out the rules that the industry itself has drawn up voluntarily and pledged to accept.
It is by those self-imposed standards that newspapers and magazines can be held to account via the Press Complaints Commission, the independent adjudicating authority.
Unlike the PCC, which has a strong majority of lay members, the Code is drafted by a senior committee of editors, representing the national and regional newspaper and magazine industry.
There is symmetry in this. For just as the PCC's authority derives from having a lay majority to guarantee independence, so does the respect that the Code commands throughout the industry flow from it having been produced by editors for editors. That guarantees the universal compliance upon which the system relies for its success.
But while the Editors' Code of Practice Committee has responsibility for writing, reviewing and revising the Code, it does not do so in isolation. It conducts an annual review, inviting suggestions for improvements from the public, civil society and government.
And any changes to the Code have, finally, to be ratified not only by the industry, but by the independent PCC.
