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Meyer redoubles attack on "misleading" report

The outgoing chairman of the Press Complaints Commission has launched a further scathing attack on the authors of a critical report on its record.

Earlier this month the Media Standards Trust published a report saying the PCC was “constitutionally and structurally unable” to deal with the threat to press standards and freedoms.

At the time, Sir Christopher branded the report “careless” and “shoddy.”

Now, in a letter to the Trust, he has redoubled his attacks on what he called the report’s “innumerable inaccuracies” and “flawed analysis,” and lambasting the Trust’s failure to allow the PCC the chance to contribute to it in advance of its publication.

“We have to ask whether this enterprise is being undertaken in good faith,” says the letter.

“We were dismayed that the Trust should be willing to allow publication of a strident report that is, by virtue of your failure to offer us any opportunity to contribute, both unbalanced and misleading.”

Sir Christopher rejected a request to meet the Trust to discuss the report, saying it was hard to see what it might achieve unless the report’s mistakes were corrected.

Sir Christopher Meyer’s letter can be read in full here.