HISTORY

The press in the UK has been subject to self-regulation for over fifty years. The self-regulatory era began with the creation of a voluntary Press Council in 1953, which aimed to maintain high ethical standards of journalism and to promote press freedom.

However, during the 1980s, a small number of publications failed in the view of many to observe the basic ethics of journalism. This in turn reinforced a belief among many members of Parliament that the Press Council, which had lost the confidence of some in the press, was not a sufficiently effective body. Some of them believed that it would be preferable to enact a law of privacy and right of reply as well as to set up a statutory press council wielding enforceable legal sanctions.

Given the serious implications of such a course of action, the Government appointed a Departmental Committee under David Calcutt QC to consider the matter. His task was “to consider what measures (whether legislative or otherwise) are needed to give further protection to individual privacy from the activities of the press and improve recourse against the press for the individual citizen”.

Calcutt's report was published in June 1990. Rather than suggesting new statutory controls, it recommended the setting up of a new Press Complaints Commission in place of the Press Council. The new Commission would have eighteen months to demonstrate “that non-statutory self-regulation can be made to work effectively. This is a stiff test for the press. If it fails, we recommend that a statutory system for handling complaints should be introduced.”

The press responded with vigour to the report and acted with great speed and co-operation to set up an independent Press Complaints Commission at the beginning of 1991.

Crucially, a committee of national and regional editors produced for the very first time a formal Code of Practice for the new Press Complaints Commission to administer. All publishers and editors committed themselves to abiding by the Code and to ensuring secure and adequate funding of the PCC. (A history of how the Code has developed over the years can be found here, while the current Code of Practice is available here).

A Press Standards Board of Finance(Pressbof), modelled on the self-regulatory system established by the advertising industry in 1974, was established and charged with raising a levy upon the newspaper and periodical industries to finance the Commission. This arrangement ensures secure financial support for the PCC in a way that underpins its independence, since the Commission is not itself responsible for obtaining funds directly from newspapers and magazines.

After overcoming the teething problems associated with most new organisations, the PCC has continued to grow in stature - building on the accomplishments of its early years. In 1995 the then Government recognised the achievements of the PCC in making effective press self-regulation in its White Paper – “Privacy and Media Intrusion”. More recently the Labour Government, elected in 1997, has also made clear its support for effective self regulation and for the work of the Press Complaints Commission. And in 2003 a House of Commons select committee concluded that “overall, standards of press behaviour, the Code and the performance of the Press Complaints Commission have improved over the last decade”. To date, the Commission has handled well over 30,000 complaints.

Anyone interested in reading a more detailed account of the history of the PCC is advised to read ‘A Press Free and Responsible: Self-regulation and the Press Complaints Commission 1991 - 2001’ by Richard Shannon, published by John Murray (2001).