An independent Commission - the PCC in a European context

People occasionally wonder whether the UK is unique in having a press complaints commission. The fact is, there are systems of press self-regulation in most European countries. While they generally perform the same fundamental functions, there are quite significant differences in the way they are constituted and in the way they go about their day to day work. So much so, in fact, that ‘self-regulation’ tends to be used to describe a multitude of quite distinctive operations.

For instance, while most press councils are entirely financed by the industry they regulate, a few, as in Germany, are part-funded by government (on a no-strings-attached basis) or by international NGOs (like Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Another major difference is in the size and make up of press council boards. In Switzerland and the Netherlands, there are over twenty members on each council but that is unusually large. Most press councils have a membership of thirteen or fewer. The Icelandic council has just five members, while PCC-equivalents in Norway and Malta both have seven.

As for their configuration, some press councils are composed of editors and members of the public (such as the PCC), while others have members from both publishers’ and journalists’ unions or associations. As the name ‘self-regulation’ suggests, most councils have a predominance of journalists, editors or publishers on their boards. Some have no public members at all.

In the UK the situation is different, with the PCC having a significant majority of public members – ten out of a total of 17 (the other seven being editors from across the country). The balance in favour of lay members was strengthened in 2003 in order to demonstrate more clearly the Commission’s independence from the newspaper and magazine industry. The result is that the PCC has the least industry-orientated membership of any press council in Europe. Which is why ‘self-regulation’ does not always tell the whole story.

For more information about press and media councils across Europe, please visit www.aipce.net, the home of the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe.