Feb
9
The PCC must be reformed
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The Press Complaints Commission must be reformed. If it is not, the courts will fill the gap – no government will ever be brave enough. That would be a bad thing – even if courts are more accountable and transparent than the PCC.
Sir Christopher Meyer, the hopeless chair of the PCC, disagrees. Instead, he is using his last days in the job to act as a roadblack to reform by criticising and trying to discredit the excellent research by the Media Standards Trust. In an interview with the Today programme, Meyer attacked the trust’s latest research which found compelling evidence that self regulation is failing the press and the public. He suggested:
- that the PCC’s website demonstrated its commitment to transparency
- the data in the trust’s report was wrong
- the trust should have spoken to the commission in the writing of its report
1. If the PCC’s website demonstrates its commitment to transparency, it shows the lack of commitment. For example, the latest annual report is for 2007. Can it not even provide interim data for 2008 yet? Or just the first half of 2008?
2. If the data in the report is wrong – which is unlikely – it is because the PCC’s data is wrong. And the PCC doesn’t help itself by hiding data in pdfs and not publishing comparable data.
3. Is the PCC a credible authority on self regulation? I have already written about an individual example of the PCC’s hopelessness. But why is it that the McCann’s – who successfully took action against media errors – or Max Mosely – who successfully took action against media intrusion – ignored the PCC? Maybe it’s because with odds of 250-1 they didn’t fancy their chances. Or because the PCC doesn’t have the necessary tools to take proper action against newspapers.
Meyer has been a hopeless chair of the PCC, as evidenced by:
- the decreasing budget (alleged, no figures available – thanks PCC)
- the majority of complainants being dissatisfied by the process
- the lack of confidence of high profile complainants
- the increasing activism of the courts
Downing Street knew he was a hopeless US ambassador so by-passed him. The same has happened at the PCC.
I could be wrong, of course. It may be that Meyer is tremendous and that he is hamstrung by a hopeless system of self regulation. But his baseless attack on the research wasn’t a thoughtful contribution to an important debate on the need to examine how the PCC exemplifies good self-regulation. This really is a challenge for the new team. If it fails, newspapers will end up in court more and more.
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