6 February 2001 – It’s going to be quite a party. Prince Charles will be there, so will Prince William, Camilla Parker Bowles, Geri Halliwell and Claudia Schiffer. And all to celebrate 10 years of the Press Complaints Commission. PressWise, naturally enough, has not been invited. Over the years we have not had too many kind things to say about Lord Wakeham and his minions, so serve us right.

Many of those criticisms remain. We still think it wrong that the Press, forever and rightly critical of self-regulation by every other profession, should righteously insist that it is the only solution for newspapers. We think it wrong that there is no pro-active effort to curb the press on such subjects as racial incitement, and wrong that third-party complaints should be ruled out.

It would be churlish, however, to deny that there have been improvements over the past decade. Largely due to the death of Princess Diana and the coming of the Human Rights Act, the Code of Practice has been strengthened and improved, especially with regard to the treatment of children and respect for privacy. And there now appears much more readiness to negotiate directly with editors – a practice pioneered by PressWise.

Historically, the PCC came about because of a fear that the Press was about to face statutory regulation. That threat was averted, and there seems little likelihood that the situation will change. The latest government White Paper on Communications proposed a unified regulatory authority for all the broadcasting media, but makes no proposal to include the Press. Why not?  In these days of cross-media ownership and new technology there seems no reason not to treat all forms of communication in the same way.

We have long argued that the PCC should be able to impose some form of sanction on errant newspapers, and even to insist on compensation for their victims. That may be asking for the moon, but there are two actions well within the scope of the present arrangements that would improve matters enormously. One is to insist that journalists’ employment contracts contain a ‘conscience clause’ which would protect them from retaliation if they refuse to obey orders which would conflict with the Code of Practice. This is common practice overseas. The other would be mandate all UK newspapers to carry a corrections column, already pioneered by The Guardian and now taken up by The Mirror.

We will wait and see. In the meantime, we wish Lord Wakeham et al a very jolly party in the best traditions of New Labour. Cheers.

Bill Norris
Associate Director

(Bulletin No 37)