• Introduction
• Chairman's perspective
• Public representatives
• Complainants
• Professional representatives
• Newspapers and magazines
• Doug Wills - Managing Editor, Evening Standard
• Elisabeth Ribbans - Managing Editor, The Guardian
• Donald Martin - Editor, The Sunday Post & The Weekly News; Editor-in-Chief, DC Thomson Newspapers
• Lisa Burrow - Editor, Closer Magazine
• Nick Turner - Digital Strategy Manager, CN Group
• Georgina Harvey - President of the Newspaper Society
• Alison Hastings - PCC Journalism Trainer, Former Editor, Evening Chronicle (Newcastle)
• The Press Complaints Commission
• Constructive critics
• International perspective
• Historical perspective
• Putting it into perspective

Newspapers and magazines

Elisabeth Ribbans - Managing Editor, The Guardian

The Guardian has continued to work well with the PCC on casework and training during a busy 2010. Over this period we received 24 complaints requiring response - a steadily increasing caseload that may be explained by the PCC's awareness-raising activity, our own increased editorial output, and certainly the reach, longevity and interactivity of online journalism. We are now seeing complaints concerning both our own journalism and comments from readers posted beneath blogs, and in some cases regarding articles published many months or years previously. Around 30% of complaints last year came from third parties not directly affected by the story in question (mostly in respect of international coverage), and this may be an area for further thought if a relatively small PCC and hard-pressed editors are to respond most effectively to serious cases and/or those from individuals and organisations featured in our reporting.

In addition to complaints activity, more than 100 Guardian and Observer journalists have benefi ted from training sessions presented in our offices by a senior member of the PCC directorate, while managing editors have participated in industry seminars organised by the PCC to explore important topics such as mental health reporting, and evolving areas around privacy, data protection and social media content.

The Guardian believes in self-regulation and supports the PCC, but we believe it can be effective only if it commands the respect of journalists and the trust of the public. Over the past year it is no secret that we have taken issue with some aspects of the work of the PCC. The Guardian has applied pressure - directly and through recommendations to the PCC governance review under Vivien Hepworth - aimed at encouraging a Commission that has greater authority, transparency and investigative muscle. These interventions have been the work of a critical friend. We were pleased that the review made a number of proposals last summer that should help create a more proactive and accountable PCC, and we welcome the assurance of director Stephen Abell, given in September 2010, that the Commission will re-examine evidence of phone hacking once parliamentary and police investigations are complete.

There are myriad challenges in the global digitalera, as we know not only from our interaction with the PCC but from the experience of the Guardian and Observer readers' editor offices, which offer a direct route (in addition to the numerous opportunities for engagement across our sites) for thousands of readers seeking corrections, clarifications or other means of response each year. Through the knowledge we have built up here, and through continuing constructive dialogue with the PCC, we look forward to playing a full role in the drive to improve standards, ethics and accountability in journalism in the years to come.