by holdthefrontpage staff
An MP is launching a private member's bill to tighten the responsibility of newspapers when people complain.
Labour's Peter Bradley wants to prevent people from being misrepresented in the press and help improve standards of journalism.
His Right of Reply and Press Standards Bill wants to:
Secure a response to complaints in three days;
Introduce a press standards adjudicator and Board to act in disputes;
Provide a database of corrections;
Give proper authority to any press standards board.
The Press Complaints Commission is the self-regulated independent body which deals with complaints from members of the UK public about editorial content in newspapers and magazines. It provides a service which it claims is free, quick and easy.
It has no statutory functions and is independent of the newspaper industry and Government, dealing with around 3,000 complaints a year.
Its website says: "The central aim of our work is amicably to resolve disputes between a newspaper or magazine and the person complaining."
But media ethics charity MediaWise has conducted a survey with results that are at odds with the PCC's own research.
It claims most people who make use of the Commission are dissatisfied with the outcome.
MP Peter Bradley, whose constituency is The Wrekin, in the West Midlands, was due to publish and launch his Right of Reply and Press Standards Bill today in the House of Commons.
He will take the bill to the House of Commons for a second reading on Friday.
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