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On 1 May 2021, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) entered into force. On 31 January 2020, the United Kingdom left the European Union and entered a transition period while it negotiated its future relationship with the European Union. Almost a year later, on 24 December 2020, the European Commission and the United Kingdom reached a deal on the TCA, which defines the terms of their future cooperation. On 29 December 2020 the Council of the European Union adopted by written procedure the decision on the signing of the agreement and its provisional application, pending the consent of...

The Editors' Code of Practice, under which the majority of Britain’s newspaper, magazine and news website journalists operate, was reviewed in 2020 and changes to it became effective from 1 January 2021. The Code is described by the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee (which draws up the Code’s provisions) as the ‘cornerstone’ of the UK press self-regulatory system. Its rules set standards that the industry members who voluntarily subscribe to it have agreed to maintain. Editors and publishers can be held to account via the Independent Press Standards Organisation...

On 7 December 2020, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, found that The Family Programme, a live radio broadcast, featured potentially harmful statements about the COVID-19 pandemic without adequate protection for listeners. The regulator currently prioritises cases linked to the coronavirus where programmes may have helped spread misinformation or included misleading material about the illness and public policy in relation to it. The Family Programme is broadcast every Sunday on New Style Radio 98.7 FM, which is a community radio station providing a service for Afro-Caribbean communities...

The BBC has introduced guidance on how BBC representatives should use social media, whether for their work or in a personal capacity. The Social Media Guidance (Guidance) is to be read in conjunction with the BBC’s Editorial Guidance on impartiality. The Guidance is to help preserve the BBC’s reputation for impartiality, as well as to promote compliance with both its own and Ofcom's editorial guidelines. The BBC and its representatives have an obligation to ensure that the BBC’s editorial decisions are not perceived to be influenced by any personal interest or bias. The...

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has published new rules for broadcasters and video-on-demand providers which will apply once the United Kingdom’s transition period for leaving the European Union has expired, that is to say, on 31 December 2020. On 1 January 2021, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), including the country of origin principle, will no longer apply to UK services broadcasting to the European Union. The Council of Europe’s European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT) framework, which came into force in 1993, will continue...