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Regional press news - this story published 22 May 2008

The Press Complaints Commission: Annual Report for 2007

by holdthefrontpage staff

The Press Complaints Commission today publishes its 2007 annual report.

It contains a host of key facts and figures about the press watchdog's activities during the past year as well as case studies highlighting the works it's done.

A summary of the findings can be found here:

The PCC made 1,229 rulings during 2007, another record and an increase of over 20 per cent on 2006. The figure represents all cases where the PCC reached a conclusion. They are broken down as:

560 - No breach of the code
483 - Resolved to satisfaction of complainant
154 - Sufficient remedial action offered be newspaper
16 - Adjudication upheld
16 - Adjudication not upheld

The PCC believes the increase in rulings could be due to the watchdog's greater visibility, growing awareness of what it does, ease of complaining via email and extension of its remit.

There were 245 rulings regarding privacy, 52.3 per cent of which concerned the regional press.

At 483, the number of complaints resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant was also the highest ever. Forms of redress included publication of apologies, letters, poems and even a page 3 photoshoot.

In 2007, over half the articles provided to the PCC were online versions, the first time they have outnumbered hard copies. However, complaints about material that only appeared online amounted to less than one per cent of that total.

In 2007, the PCC received 4,340 complaints, a 70 per cent increase on the 1996 figure. One column alone in The Mirror about Madeleine McCann attracted 485 complaints.

The majority of complaints were about accuracy which made up 75.4 per cent of all possible breaches of the code. There were also 822 formal investigations.

The prominence of an apology in a newspaper continues to be the most important yardstick by which to measure the PCC, according to the report. In 2007, 81 per cent of corrections, apologies and clarifications appeared on the same page or further forward than the offending article. A further nine per cent appeared within two pages.

The PCC's expenditure during 2007 was just over £1.8m. The majority of this (£1.018m) went on wages. A further £207,273 was spent on legal/professional fees and £141,807 on travel, entertainment and PR.

Visit the PCC's website to read the annual report in full.