Online Safety Act 2023

56 “Recognised news publisher” U.K.

(1) In this Part, “recognised news publisher” means any of the following entities—

(a) the British Broadcasting Corporation,

(b) Sianel Pedwar Cymru,

(c) the holder of a licence under the Broadcasting Act 1990 or 1996 who publishes news-related material in connection with the broadcasting activities authorised under the licence, and

(d) any other entity which—

(i) meets all of the conditions in subsection (2),

(ii) is not an excluded entity (see subsection (3)), and

(iii) is not a sanctioned entity (see subsection (4)).

(2) The conditions referred to in subsection (1)(d)(i) are that the entity—

(a) has as its principal purpose the publication of news-related material, and such material—

(i) is created by different persons, and

(ii) is subject to editorial control,

(b) publishes such material in the course of a business (whether or not carried on with a view to profit),

(c) is subject to a standards code,

(d) has policies and procedures for handling and resolving complaints,

(e) has a registered office or other business address in the United Kingdom,

(f) is the person with legal responsibility for material published by it in the United Kingdom, and

(g) publishes—

(i) the entity’s name, the address mentioned in paragraph (e) and the entity’s registered number (if any), and

(ii) the name and address of any person who controls the entity (including, where such a person is an entity, the address of that person’s registered or principal office and that person’s registered number (if any)).

(3) An “excluded entity” is an entity—

(a) which is a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000 (see section 3 of that Act), or

(b) the purpose of which is to support a proscribed organisation under that Act.

(4) A “sanctioned entity” is an entity which—

(a) is designated by name under a power contained in regulations under section 1 of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 that authorises the Secretary of State or the Treasury to designate persons for the purposes of the regulations or of any provisions of the regulations, or

(b) is a designated person under any provision included in such regulations by virtue of section 13 of that Act (persons named by or under UN Security Council Resolutions).

(5) For the purposes of subsection (2)—

(a) news-related material is “subject to editorial control” if there is a person (whether or not the publisher of the material) who has editorial or equivalent responsibility for the material, including responsibility for how it is presented and the decision to publish it;

(b) “control” has the same meaning as it has in the Broadcasting Act 1990 by virtue of section 202 of that Act.

(6) In this section—

• “news-related material” means material consisting of—

  (a)

  news or information about current affairs,

  (b)

  opinion about matters relating to the news or current affairs, or

  (c)

  gossip about celebrities, other public figures or other persons in the news;

• “publish” means publish by any means (including by broadcasting), and references to a publisher and publication are to be construed accordingly;

• “standards code” means—

  (a)

  a code of standards that regulates the conduct of publishers, that is published by an independent regulator, or

  (b)

  a code of standards that regulates the conduct of the entity in question, that is published by the entity itself.

Commencement Information

I1 S. 56 in force at Royal Assent, see s. 240(4)(h)