Press Complaints Commission >> About the PCC >> Annual Reports >> The Commission

THE COMMISSION

Sixteen members serve on the Press Complaints Commission. A majority of them - nine out of the sixteen - are independent members, completely unconnected with the press. This includes the Chairman, Lord Wakeham. The remaining seven members are senior editors drawn from across the newspaper and magazine publishing industry. This balance ensures the independence of the Commission.

There have been a considerable number of changes to the composition of the Commission since the last Annual Report.

Seven members have left the Commission:
Lady Browne-Wilkinson;
Iris Burton;
Tom Clarke;
Graham Collyer;
Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde; John Griffith; and
John Witherow.

Between them they have given more than twenty five years of service to the PCC - and the Commission would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their invaluable work.

In addition, we record with much sadness the death of Sir David English - who had served for five years as a member of the PCC and Chairman of the Editors' Code Committee. A tribute to him is in this report.

Six new editors have joined the Commission. They are:
Paul Dacre	Editor of The Daily Mail and Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers;
Phil Hall	Editor of The News of the World;
Alison Hastings	Editor of the Evening Chronicle (Newcastle);
Dominic Lawson	Editor of The Sunday Telegraph;
Pat Roberts Cairns	Editor- in-Chief of Good Housekeeping; and
Malcolm Starbrook	Editor of the Croydon Advertiser.

Two new lay members have also joined the Commission:
Dame Ruth Runciman	former Chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission; and
Dr Arthur Hearnden	former General Secretary of the Independent Schools Council and member of the Schools Examination and Assessment Council.

The Appointments Commission

All members of the PCC are appointed by an independent Appointments Commission. This again guarantees the independence of the Commission from the newspaper industry which generously funds it.

The five member Appointments Commission is chaired by Lord Wakeham. One representative of the newspaper industry sits on it - Sir Harry Roche, Chairman of the Press Standards Board of Finance.

The other three members, each of them unconnected with the press, are:
Sir Geoffrey Holland (Vice Chancellor of Exeter University);
Lord Mayhew of Twysden QC (former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland); and
David Clementi (Deputy Governor of the Bank of England).

Mr Clementi took over from Sir Denys Henderson, who retired from the Appointments Commission at the end of 1998 after four years of service. The Commission would like to take the opportunity of this Annual Report to thank Sir Denys for everything he has contributed to the success of self regulation.

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