Press Complaints Commisson lecture 3

Monday 22ND of October saw our third guest lecture. I know we were asked to find a news angle in each lecture but I have really struggled on this one unless I’m to go down the route of looking at what press have in the past printed and got in a whole lot of trouble for. I have decided therefore to go with the review/ account structure with this one.

Sue Roberts from the Press Complaints Commission came to give us an informative talk of what actions we can and can not get away with as potential journalists. We were given a hand out of the Editors Code of Practise which lays out the professional standards we are expected to reach both now and in the future.

Everyone was pleased when Sue told us that she was not there to give us a blow by blow account of the history of self regulated press and that she would give us the basic need to know information which we could follow up with links to the P.C.C website.

As Sue went on the explain the P.C.C is a "reactive not proactive," totally impartial body who act independently from the press itself for people who have in some way felt misrepresented by the press.

The P.C.C covers all printed journalism and in the past 10 years moves have been made to include online titles, only however, those that originally appeared in printed form. To try and cover all would, as Sue said be "Too great a task."

Sue explained the importance of a self regulated press as a tool for freedom of expression. The P.C.C were given just 18months to prove that the code of practise worked in theory as well as practise. Without this nod of approval it would be highly likely for state regulated press to come into force.

It was interesting to learn that although the chairperson is totally impartial, and 60% of the board are independent from the press, the further 40% are made up of editors. This is because they will be regarded to have a better understanding of day to day running of newspapers offices. However if its a editor on the board themselves that’s being complained about they are not allowed, for obvious reasons on the board at that time.

In 2006 the commission received 3325 complaints. Only a relatively small number of complaints ever actually go very far, with at least a thousand being solved amicably.

The P.C.C has 16 clauses in all. The largest of these clauses are those surrounding privacy matters, although it was interesting to find out that only 25% of the complaints the commission receive actually surround matters of privacy, more than 50% are more likely to be in regards to accuracies in print.

Sue spoke in depth about what constituted privacy she used the "back garden front garden" theory. She got us involved in case studies asking us which we considered to be in breach of privacy or not, I began to realise just how far you could go and how important it was to know the codes of conduct. The lecture actually tied in very well with our present law lectures in regards to our practise as journalists.

There was a lot covered in the lecture and therefore a lot to take in at one time. I have since looked at the website and read the F.A.Q section that Sue suggested this has helped me understand further.