OXFORD PUBLIC MEETING

10 October 2007

The PCC has held the ninth in its series of public meetings. Held in Oxford, at the Town Hall, the meeting saw representatives from community groups, the council, public sector organisations as well as a number of students putting their questions on newspaper and magazine regulation to the PCC’s Chairman and staff.

The meeting opened with a short introduction by Sir Christopher Meyer, Chairman of the PCC, who gave an overview of the organisation’s main services and explained the PCC’s commitment to raising awareness of its work throughout the whole of the UK.

All attendees were keen to share their views, and the ensuing hour and half-long discussion included questions on how the PCC is funded; the work it has done with organisations representing asylum seekers; how crime is reported in local newspapers; and the implications of the PCC’s decision to regulate audio-visual material on publications’ websites. The other members of the panel were Tim Toulmin, Director of the PCC, and Alison Hastings, Trustee for England for the BBC Trust and a former editor of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle.

PCC staff also ran a surgery session earlier in the day, to allow people with a specific query to have a private discussion on a one-to-one basis or to pick up some printed literature.

The PCC has held two town meetings per year since 2003. The next meeting will be held in Leeds in February 2008. Further details will be available in due course but to register your interest in attending, or for any queries in the meantime, please email Tonia Milton on tonia.milton@pcc.org.uk


Audience at Oxford Town Hall.