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MEDIA GUARDIAN – GREENSLADE BLOG

Two swift reactions to the announcement that the Press Complaints Commission is to undergo a review from bodies likely to make critical submissions.

MediaWise refers to it as welcome, if overdue –

but says: “There is something a tad disingenuous about appointing a member of the commission to lead the reform group.”

Vivien Hepworth, after seven years on the PCC board, is stepping down in order to lead the review team, which will also include two other independent members and a figure with “senior experience of the newspaper and magazine industry.”

The MediaWise director, Mike Jempson, says: “Scepticism may be assuaged if this turns out not to be an editor who has already served on the commission, nor one whose publication has had to be censured.

“And it would be healthy if Ms Hepworth were to take on board one of the legion of the critics the PCC has attracted over the years.”

He also points out that the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom will probably ask again why the PCC is shielded from freedom of information requests.

Another likely area for Hepworth’s consideration is the PCC’s refusal to accept third party complaints (a particular bone of contention for bodies that represent asylum-seekers and refugees, people with mental health issues, young people, hospital patients, victims of crime, relatives of disaster victims and the families of prisoners).


As Jempson argues, the editors’ code of practice “continues to allow discriminatory stories to be published so long as no individual is named –

thereby sidestepping the possibility of first person complaints.”

He concludes by asking a series of questions:

“Why is it ‘the right time for a fresh and independent look’ as Ms Hepworth puts it? Is it because the burgeoning scandals of press malpractice in recent years make such a review inevitable?

“Is it because the press fear a backlash from politicians whose own unethical antics have so recently been exposed to public scrutiny?

“Or is it perhaps because year on year the number of complaints the PCC is struggling to deal with is increasing in inverse proportion to falling newspaper revenues?”

The Media Standards Trust’s response is altogether more low key in welcoming the announcement of a review ordered by the PCC’s chair, Baroness (Peta) Buscombe.

It refers to its report, A more accountable press, issued in February, that called for urgent reform to the system of press self-regulation.

In its statement yesterday, the MST said:

“The current system of self-regulation… is not transparent or accountable enough, and we are very pleased that the PCC’s review will look at these issues alongside its operation and constitution.”

Martin Moore, the director of the MST, pledged to “be as helpful as we can… We look forward to discussing these issues with the PCC over the coming months.”

The choice of Hepworth’s team is, of course, crucial. Evidently, the PCC has no-one in mind for the other two independent spots. But, as Jempson says, it is the choice of the editorial figure that will indicate just how serious Buscombe is about reform.