The Press Complaints Commission

What does the PCC do?

• An independent body which deals with complaints about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines in the UK and their websites.
• It administers a sixteen clause Code of Practice which acts as the "rules" to which editors and journalists must adhere.
• They investiage complaints from people believe that the Code has been breached, either in a published article or in the way a journalist obtained the material.
• When there is a problem under the Code of the PCC acts as a mediator to help the editor and the comaplainant agree on a way to resolve the dispute, for example, by way of a published correction, apology and clairification.
• If the problem cannot be settled in this way, the Commission will assess the evidence and information provided by both sides in the dispute and will issue a formal judgement ("adjudication") on the complaint. The adjudication sets out the reasons why the complaint, the newspaper or magazine in question must publish the text of the PCC's critical adjudication in full, and in a prominent place in the newspaper.
• In some cases, the PCC will consider that during the course of its investigation, the publication has made an offer of remedial action that is satisfactory under the terms of the Code, and that therfore no further action is necessary. This might, for example, include the publication offering to publish a correction; writing a private letter from the editor to the complainant; or publishing a follow-up letter from the complainant.

How does the system work?

• The system of regulation administered by the PCC is not a legal one, nor is it run by the government.
• It is based on a voluntary agreement by the newspaper and magazine industry to allow itself to be regulated by an independent body.
• While the Code of Practice is drawn up by a committee of editors, the Commission itself has a clear majority of public members.
• 10 of the 17 Commissioners including the Chairman have no connection to newspapers/magazines.
• None of the PCC's staff are connected to the industry either.

What does the Code of Practice cover?

• The Code of Practice has 16 sections and covers four main areas:

1. Accuracy
2. Privacy
3. News Gathering
4. Protecting the Vulnerable

• An editor is expected to take responsibility for all the stories and photographs that appear in his or her publication and to ensure that they comply with the Code.
• Sometimes an editor may want to defend his publication or the behaviour of a journalist as being in the "public interest".
• The Code sets out the circumstances in which an editor may mount such a defence.
• The Code does not cover issues of taste and decency because the PCC recognises that in a democratic society, newspapers must have the freedom to choose the style in which they publish material in keeping with the Code of Practice.
• The Commission understands that people choose to look at a newspaper. They can therefore make an informed decision about which newspaper fits their own tastes.
• By contrast, advertising billboards, for instance may be on public view and so rules on taste may be appropriate.

How is the PCC funded?

• The PCC is funded through a body called the Press Standards Board of Finance which is responsible for collecting money from newspapers and magazines in the UK.
• The press has agreed that each newspaper or magazine should contribute an amount in proportion to the amount of people who buy it and read it (circulation) - so a large, national newspaper like the Sun will have to pay much more money than a small, local paper like the Stourbridge News, for example.
• Members of the public do not have to pay for the service either directly or indirectly through their taxes.
• The PCC does not receive any money from the government.

What is the history of the PCC?

• The PCC was set up in 1991 and replaced the Press Council, which had been set up in 1953 with the aim of maintaining high standards of journalism as well as protecting press freedom.
• During the 1980s, a small number of publications failed to observe the  basic ethics of journalism and this led many MPs to lose confidence in the Press Council, which they thought was weak and ineffective.
• Some politicaians believed it would be preferable to introduce a new regulatory authority which would come under government control and would have the power to enforce legal punishments.
• The Govermnets appointed a Departmental Committee under David Calcutt QC to consider the matter. Its task was "to consider what measures (whether legislative or otherwise) are needed to give further proection to individual privacy from the activities of the press and improve recourse against the press for the individual citizen".
• The report that followed did not recommend new statutory controls but proposed a new Press Complaints Commission which would have to prove "that a non-statutory regulation can be made to work effectively".
• A committee of national and regional editor was duly set up. They produced a formal Code of Practice for the Press Complaints Commission to administer. The Press Standards Board of Finance was set up to organise funding.
• Despite some inital teething problems, the PCC has continued to grow in respect and influence. The current Government has made it clear its support for effective self-regulation and for the work of the Press Complaints Commission.

Who complains to the PCC and what do they complain about?

• The PCC accepts complaints from anyone who believes an article involving them breaches the Code in some way. A number of celebrities have used the PCC's service in recent years, but most complaints are ordinary people.
• In 2007, 1.5% of complaints came from people in the public eye,  but the vast majority (95.8%) came from ordinary members of the public.
• The Code provides special protection to particularly vulnerable groups of people such as children, hospital patients and those at risk of discrimination.
• The majority of complaints to the Commission are about regional  newspapers, perhaps as a demonstration of the importance readers attach to the publication which will be seen by most people in their locality.

Why is the PCC important?

• In a democracy, the press should not be subject to stringent controls by law or government. The PCC, being an independent, voluntary organisation, protects against this possibility simply by its existence.
• However, being free does not mean the press should not be accountable - there has to be a balance. It is vital that there be some mechanism which sets out what people can expect from the press; and by which wrongs can be righted when the occur. The PCC is committed to protecting the public by ensuring that when the rules are broken it can put things right as soon as possible. It is fast (dealing with a complaints in an avergae of 35 days); it is free (it costs complainants nothing to use the service) and it is fair (the Commission is independent fom the industry it was set up to regulate).