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Can the Press Complaints Commission be 'independent, consistent and effective' ?
Tom O'Malley
CPBF says:
It is independent of any kind of public control, being, like its predecessor the Press Council, paid for by the newspaper proprietors. It is consistent in unwillingness to adjudicate on the vast majority of complaints it receives from the public. In 2002 of 2360 complaints it filtered out 2326 and adjudicated on just 34.
It is effective as a political lobby group, which has managed to prevent the introduction of even the mildest measure of statutory reform.
No doubt the Culture Committee's report will prompt some cosmetic alterations to the 'procedures' of the PCC. But similar bouts of 'reform', such as the introduction of more lay members, have been and gone before - most notably as result of barrages of public criticism of the failure of self-regulation from the 1960s to the 1990s. These 'reforms' failed because they were devised to avoid statutory reform, not create effective regulation.
The public needs a press complaints system that is free from the control of the proprietors. The only way to do this is to establish, after
proper debate, a Press Freedom law, guaranteeing rights to report and the autonomy of journalists from proprietorial control, and an independent, statutory, Press Complaints body which but which has the power and the willingness to enforce its rulings.
It is the public and journalists who need an 'independent, consistent and effective' body, to promote the public interest.
The PCC is not such a body and as long as it is in the pay of the proprietors will never be so.
Last modified: Tuesday, June 24, 2003
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Events & Announcements
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