The Public Interest News Foundation (PINF) was the first organisation in the UK to be registered by the regulator, the Charity Commission, with a specific ‘charitable journalism’ purpose.
In the blog post announcing this achievement, the organisation laid out the formal definition of public interest news that the regulator accepted, and which is written into the organisation’s own Articles of Association.
In PINF’s Articles of Association, “Public Interest News” is defined as “news and other information which is produced and disseminated to the public according to high standards of ethical conduct and best practice in journalism and which provides one or more of the following benefits to the public:
· informs members of the public about matters of relevance to their role and responsibilities as citizens;
· enables members of local communities to become aware of and understand matters of common concern to them as members of their community and which promotes their involvement and cooperation in such matters and community cohesion accordingly;
· enables members of the public to participate in an informed manner in relevant democratic processes and, as a result, supports the legitimacy of the democratic process as a whole;
· benefits the public by promoting charitable educational outcomes, such as improving public understanding of health and medical matters or the conservation of the environment;
and specifically excludes material which is simply entertaining in nature, politically motivated, biased or inaccurate, or which fails to observe a person’s right to privacy.
The new charitable object recognised by the Charity Commission is to “promote citizenship and civic responsibility and encourage and facilitate informed participation and engagement by members of the public in their communities, including by supporting the provision of Public Interest News by exclusively charitable means”.
Public Interest News 