PCC confirms planned closure and transfer to a new body

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has confirmed it will close and that its assets will be transferred to a new body, following reports that formal approval was given to the closure at a meeting yesterday.

In February this year the commission's chairman Lord Hunt said in an interview with Sky News that the PCC would "in principle move now to a new body".

"We’re very much now on the front foot and listening to all sides and determined to bring forward the sort of independent self-regulatory structure that everyone will approve of."

Appearing before the Leveson inquiry in the same month Hunt also referred to a "new regulator" which he said "should have two arms".

"One that deals with complaints and mediation, continuing the valuable work that's been going on hitherto, by the staff of the PCC, and a separate arm that audits and, where necessary, enforces standards and compliance, compliance with the editors' code, with much greater emphasis on internal self-regulation, with a named individual carrying personal responsibility for compliance at each and every one of the publishers and those responsible for newspapers and magazines."

At the time he also said that the editors' code should also go under independent review.

"This is all part and parcel of the overall proposals, which I have summarised in a two-page document which I have circulated to each of the editors who attended that meeting, and on which I'm now getting a number of very helpful and positive responses."

The National Union of Journalists' general secretary Michelle Stanistreet issued a statement in response to the planned closure, saying: "We are pleased that its closure has been announced today".

"The NUJ does not believe that a rebranding – the PCC Mark 2 that is often referred to – would do anything other than repeat (yet again) all the past mistakes that have been made. It would do nothing to introduce the wholesale cultural shift that is necessary within the press to bring ethics and a natural compliance with the law to the forefront of all news gathering."

She added: "The NUJ is no keener than anyone else on confusing protection of the rights of others with allowing governments or others in powerful positions to control what appears in the press for their own ends, and it certainly does not believe that press barons and editors should be allowed to interfere with the rights of privacy, fair trial and reputation of private citizens solely to maximise their own right to make a profit.

"The primary duty of any new body must be to ensure the freedom of the press. It must be free from interference from the state and politicians – and equally independent of the media owners and editors. The body needs to be free for users at point of access so that there is no financial impediment to complaints about standards. These are attributes that need to remain in a successor regulator and the service should be accessible to all and free from bureaucratic barriers that serve to slow the pace to ensure a speedy redress for those who believe they have been the victim of an injustice.

"The body needs to encourage good practice. This must include a right of reply allowing those who are the subject of harmful inaccuracies in a report to put the record straight. When errors are made editors must be encouraged to make corrections immediately and in good faith. Mistakes should be acknowledged with equal prominence to the offending article – such changes will over time serve to profoundly change behaviour within newsrooms."

She also said that the union "will engage in every opportunity available to continue to argue for a new organisation that is fit-for-purpose and improves media accountability".

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