The Media Standards Trust is a British media

think tank A think tank, or 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-governmenta ...

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, based at University College London, 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 boa ...

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 an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

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'' 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 central processing unit levels up to the highest file system and process levels. Modern open source toolin ...

into the mobile phone voice mail of murder victim

Milly Dowler Milly is a feminine given name, sometimes used as a short form (hypocorism) of Mildred, Amelia, Emily, etc. It may refer to: People * Milly Alcock (born 2000), Australian actress * Milly Babalanda (born 1970), Ugandan politician * Milly Bern ...

, 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 Onora Sylvia O'Neill, Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve (born 23 August 1941) is a British philosopher and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Early life and education Onora Sylvia O'Neill was born on 23 August 1941 in Aughafatten. The dau ...

Francis Wheen Francis James Baird Wheen (born 22 January 1957) is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster. Early life and education Wheen was born into an army familyNicholas Wro"A life in writing" ''The Guardian'', 29 August 2009 and educated at two ind ...

, Tom Watson MP,

Ben Goldacre Ben Michael Goldacre (born 20 May 1974) is a British physician, academic and science writer. He is the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford ...

, Baroness Helena Kennedy, Sir David Bell,

D. D. Guttenplan Don David Guttenplan is editor of ''The Nation''. A former London correspondent of the magazine, he wrote ''The Holocaust on Trial'', a book about the '' Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt'' libel case while based in the UK's capital. Early lif ...

Roy Greenslade Roy Greenslade (born 31 December 1946) is a British author and freelance journalist, and a former professor of journalism. He worked in the UK newspaper industry from the 1960s onwards. As a media commentator, he wrote a daily blog from 2006 to ...

, Ian Hargreaves, John Lloyd,

Isabel Hilton Isabel Nancy Hilton OBE (born 25 November 1949) is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster based in London. Early life Hilton was educated at Edinburgh University, where she studied Chinese to post-graduate level. As Secretary of the entir ...

Ian Jack Ian Grant Jack (7 February 1945 – 28 October 2022) was a British reporter, writer and editor. He edited the ''Independent on Sunday'', the literary magazine ''Granta'' and wrote regularly for ''The Guardian''. Early life Jack was born in Fa ...

John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilge ...

John Prescott John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is 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 Labour Party, he w ...

, Richard Peppiatt,

Andreas Whittam Smith Sir Andreas Whittam Smith, (born 13 June 1937) is an English financial journalist, who was one of the founders of ''The Independent'' newspaper, which began publication in October 1986 with Whittam Smith as editor. He is a former president of th ...

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...

, 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 both a charming, and vulnerable romantic lead and has since transitioned into a dramatic character actor. Among his numerous a ...

supported the campaign and became a public spokesperson, appearing on the BBC television programmes ''

Question Time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

'' and ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' (or ''BBC Newsnight'') is BBC Two's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. The programme is broadcast on weekdays at 22:30. and is also availa ...

''. The campaign was criticised by Lewis Page in ''

The Register ''The Register'' is a British technology news website co-founded in 1994 by Mike Magee, John Lettice and Ross Alderson. The online newspaper's masthead sublogo is "''Biting the hand that feeds IT''." Their primary focus is information te ...

'', 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 Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is a registered charity founded in England in 1961. It is one of the larger independent grant-making foundations based in the UK, funding organisations which aim to improve the quality of life for people and communit ...

, the

Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) is a philanthropic grant making trust that supports work undertaken in the UK and Ireland, and previously South Africa. It is one of three original trusts set up by Joseph Rowntree in 1904. The Trust ...

, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, Eranda Foundation, and

Scott Trust Limited Scott Trust Limited is the British company that owns Guardian Media Group and thus ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer'' as well as various other media businesses in the UK. In 2008, it replaced the Scott Trust, which had owned ''The Guardian'' s ...

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

Robert Worcester Sir Robert Milton Worcester, (born 21 December 1933) is an American-born British pollster who is the founder of MORI (Market & Opinion Research International Ltd.) and a member and contributor to many voluntary organisations. He is a well-kno ...

People

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

Evan Harris Evan Leslie Harris (born 21 October 1965) is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford West and Abingdon from 1997 to 2010, losing his seat in the 2010 general election by 176 votes to Conservative ...

and

Daisy Cooper Daisy Cooper (born 29 October 1981) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for St Albans since 2019. She has served as the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party since 2020 ...

. 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 published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...

Group) — resigned when he was appointed to Leveson Inquiry * Julia Middleton (CEO,

Common Purpose UK Common Purpose is a British-founded charity that runs leadership-development programmes around the world. Common Purpose UK is a subsidiary of Common Purpose. Founded in 1989 by Julia Middleton, its aim is to develop leaders who cross bounda ...

) * Sir

Cyril Chantler Sir Cyril Chantler (born 12 May 1939) is a British paediatric nephrologist. Chantler was notable for devising a method with Norman Veale of measuring glomerular function in children and later researched diet and growth failure in children wit ...

(Chairman, King's Fund) * Sir

(Founder,

MORI Mori is a Japanese and Italian surname, and also a Persian pet name for Morteza. It is also the name of two clans in Japan, and one clan in India. Italian surname *Barbara Mori, Uruguayan-Mexican actress * Camilo Mori, Chilean painter * Cesare ...

) *

Tim Waterstone Sir Tim Waterstone (born 30 May 1939) is a British businessman and author. He is the founder of Waterstones, the United Kingdom-based bookselling retail chain, the largest in Europe. Early life Tim Waterstone was born on 30 May 1939 in Glasgow ...

(Founder of

Waterstones Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...

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''). From 2006 u ...

(Business Editor,

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...