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Telegraph Misled Readers on Climate Change Impact, rules Press Watchdog in Rare Slap-Down

Six-month battle sees Telegraph forced to correct an inaccurate article about the impact of climate change on rail delays

A commuter reading the Daily Telegraph Newspaper. Contributor: James Boardman / Alamy Stock Photo

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The Daily Telegraph has been found to have misled readers about the impact of climate change on Britain’s railways, following a ruling by the UK press’ self-regulating body.

Following a six month back-and-forth with a climate think tank, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) has now upheld a complaint against the newspaper over an article published in April this year, which claimed there had been a “fall in weather [related] delays” on the rail network. 

The story claimed that it “eroded” the Network Rail chief’s warnings over the impact of climate change on the sector. 

But in response to a complaint from the non-profit Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, which tackles misinformation on the climate crisis, Ipso found that the article’s headline and opening sentence were “misleading” and “not supported by the article.”

The report, titled “Fall in weather delays erodes rail chief’s climate warning,” suggested that weather-related train disruption had decreased in recent years, supposedly contradicting warnings from Network Rail’s chief executive about the growing impact of climate change on railway infrastructure.

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The headline remains the same on the ruled-against Telegraph article, at time of writing (21 Oct 1:30pm). Photo: Telegraph screengrab

However, Ipso’s ruling stated that while the percentage of weather-related delays among total delay minutes had fallen between 2020 and 2023, there had actually been an increase in the total delay minutes related to weather during this period.

The complaint was brought by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), an NGO that supports “informed debate” on energy and climate change issues. The ECIU argued that the Telegraph‘s article was misleading in several respects, including its presentation of data and its interpretation of trends in weather-related rail disruptions.

In its ruling, Ipso’s Complaints Committee said: “The Committee acknowledged the complainant’s concern that the headlines and article were misleading to refer to ‘falling’ or a ‘fall’ in weather delays.”

The regulator added: “The Committee noted that the article’s set of data actually showed that while the percentage of weather-related delays was falling amongst total delay minutes, from 2020 to 2023, there had been an increase in the total delay minutes related to weather.”

Ipso ordered the Telegraph to publish a correction acknowledging that its analysis did not show overall weather-related delay minutes were decreasing, but rather their share in the total of delay minutes was decreasing. 

Both the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit and Network Rail pointed out that the four years covered saw a major increase in disruption caused by strike action, amid waves of national and localised strikes on the network. 

This contributed to the overall number of disruptions on the rail network soaring, meaning that other causes of rail chaos such as extreme weather became relatively less pronounced – even while the recorded minutes of disruption overall from extreme weather increased. 

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The correction appeared in the newspaper’s Corrections and Clarifications column on Friday (October 18). Ipso told the paper to present the correction as a standalone item on the website homepage for 24 hours and be added to the original article.

The ruling comes at a time of increasing scrutiny of media coverage of climate change issues. Yet the watchdog rarely rules on complaints. According to its latest report, the vast majority of complaints do not result in a ruling. 

ECIU believes it is the first article relating to climate change that has been found to breach the Ipso editors’ code since 2020.

A quote from right-wing campaign group the Taxpayer’s Alliance in the piece also claimed that climate change was “a problem that is having less and less of an impact on the network”. ECIU argued that this was inaccurate, as proven by calculations outlining the total delay minutes relating to extreme weather alone. But Ipso ruled that “newspapers are entitled to publish the views of individuals provided they are distinguished as such.” 

The climate group which complained pointed out that the total delay minutes relating to weather are actually increasing, according to Network Rail data. They argued that the general trend shows weather-related disruptions are on the rise, contrary to the impression given by the Telegraph‘s article.

Media reform group Hacked Off raised concerns about the length of time it took for the correction to be issued.

ECIU wrote to Ipso on 10th April to complain about the article. After four months of deliberations, the complaint was upheld – but the Telegraph demanded an ‘Independent Review’ of the process.

The Ipso ruling against the paper

That review found no flaws in the process but further delayed the correction. In that time, many people will have seen the flawed story, digested the misleading claims and let it spread, ECIU warned.

The Telegraph, in its defence, argued that its data analysis was based on official figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) and that it had made clear in the article that it was referring to a falling “proportion of delays attributed to ‘weather, autumn and structure’”, not falling delays due to weather overall.

However, Ipso ruled that the headline and first sentence were still misleading and required correction. The regulator noted that while newspapers are entitled to interpret data and publish opinions, they must ensure that headlines are supported by the text and that significant inaccuracies are promptly corrected.

An ECIU spokesperson told Byline Times: “Climate change is an issue that ranks highly on the public’s list of concerns, so it’s important that efforts are made to present them with accurate information. It is unfortunate in this instance that more people will have read the original article than will see the corrected version.”

Nathan Sparkes, CEO of Hacked Off, added: “It is extraordinary that it took IPSO six months to address an evidently misleading headline. ” He noted that Ipso’s board is “dominated” by the national newspapers themselves, including the Daily Telegraph‘s publisher, whose Deputy Chairman sits on the body which controls Ipso’s rules.

“The public are being denied access to reliable, factual and evidence-based information about the climate crisis by national newspapers’ low standards and persistence with sham regulation – and by politicians’ failure to legislate for an alternative,” Sparkes said. Labour made no mention of reforming media regulation in its manifesto this year, to the disappointment of some campaigners.

The Telegraph is currently in the process of being sold, reportedly to the owner of the small online tabloid the New York Sun, Dovid Efune. 

Telegraph Media Group was contacted for comment.

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