PCC press-ganged?

Widespread public dismay at the News International phone hacking scandal has thrown the future of press regulation into question.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced two public inquiries this week. One, judge-led, will look at the police response to phone hacking, and the other will look at media ethics and regulation of the press.

Currently, the Press Complaints Commission (PCC)—composed of seven newspaper editors and 10 laypersons—operates a system of light-touch self-regulation. Labour leader Ed Miliband this week added his voice to critics calling for it to be scrapped.

The PCC said, in a statement, that its work had been “grossly undervalued” and that it needed to be more independent.

“We do not accept that the scandal of phone hacking should claim, as a convenient scalp, the Press Complaints Commission,” it said.

Media lawyer Razi Mireskandari, managing partner, Simons Muirhead & Burton, said: “Ofsted do it. The broadcast media is pretty well regulated. It can be done, but it can’t be done by editors. Self-regulation is the problem.

“An independent regulator of the press, with powers to fine and the ability to sanction newspapers by preventing publication, could work. The sanctions would have to be imposed after publication—newspapers should ‘publish and be damned’—and the regulator can’t oust the jurisdiction of the law. If there is a breach of privacy, for example, people must still be able to go to court.

“The PCC aren’t very well respected. It would be a rare case where I would advise someone to complain to the PCC rather than go through the law.”