![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/11\/00\/78803779-12848657-image-m-83_1702256302754.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe State-approved Press watchdog \u2013 set up to monitor newspaper accuracy \u2013 has been caught making false claims about its finances.<\/p>\n
Impress, which is bankrolled by funding from the late Press reform campaigner Max Mosley, is supposed to enforce accuracy in the media.<\/p>\n
But, amid scrutiny of its finances and the way it relies on Mosley’s millions, it wrongly stated that it had received money from another source \u2013 a reputable Government grant-making body called the Arts and Humanities Research Council.<\/p>\n
The AHRC asked Impress more than two weeks ago to retract an announcement in its annual report saying that the Council was providing funding to the Press watchdog. Yet it was only when a journalist contacted Impress last week that it hurriedly issued a correction and an apology on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Impress, which is bankrolled by funding from the late Press reform campaigner Max Mosley, is supposed to enforce accuracy in the media<\/p>\n
The correction was slipped out on its website, but not the homepage, and failed to explain how the mistake had occurred.<\/p>\n
Impress was set up in 2015 but no national newspapers are members. Most, including the Mail, are regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).<\/p>\n
Since then, Impress has received more than \u00a313million from the Alexander Mosley Charitable Trust.<\/p>\n
So the claim of funds from another source was significant. But the only indirect connection was that the AHRC had given a \u00a3497,000 grant to two universities to research international press regulation. Impress gave \u00a35,000 towards publishing a report on the academic findings but did not receive a penny in return.<\/p>\n