The PCC Trip

I found the trip to the PCC really useful and informative. Because it is a voluntary set-up which the public don't pay for it came as a suprise for me to realise just how high-profile it was. We were given a talk in a board room by one of the commissioners. It was interesting working through the case studies with her and learning that the conclusions that they came to were not always obvious, and to learn just how many factors come into play during deliberation. What I found the most surprising of all is that there is no set precedent to determine whether freedom of expression, privacy, or public interest overrules. I was impressed to learn that they deal with requests over a maximum of 35 days, and also that editors subscribe up quite voluntarily, and on the whole do not attempt to breach the code, although in some instances they take large risks.