Under the sub-headline “What are England’s new rules?” the article said “People in England must stay at home and only go out for essential reasons”, and went on to list as a permitted exception “Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day)”.  Having considered the most recently published Government rules and a subsequent statement by the National Police Chiefs’ Council on similar instructions concerning travel for exercise, the ECU agreed with the complainant that the proposed limit on outdoor exercise to once a day was not at that time a rule, but constituted guidance.  An element of confusion here was understandable because new guidance on limiting exercise had not been incorporated into law but it appears that advice from the Government had not been altered or revised accordingly.  However, as the purpose of the article was to inform people about what was or was not permissible at the time, the element of inaccuracy was material to readers’ understanding of the situation, and this aspect of the complaint was upheld.  However, the ECU did not agree that other instances cited by the complainant were likely to mislead readers about what was permissible or fell below the standard of due accuracy in this context.
Partly upheld