A senior regional editor is launching a fight to save the Press Complaints Commission from the threat of abolition in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
Premier David Cameron has called the press watchdog “ineffective,” “lacking in rigour” and “institutionally conflicted” and asked Lord Justice Leveson to come up with a new regulatory framework for the industry.
But Ipswich Evening Star editor Nigel Pickover, a former president of the Society of Editors, says the PCC does a good job for the regional press and should be kept.
Now Nigel, pictured above, is urging fellow editors to lobby ministers to keep the PCC as the regional press watchdog while setting up a separate body for national newspapers.
He told HTFP: “I believe the PCC has had a really bad press in recent days, undeservedly so, and I am happy to leap to its defence.
“I think there does need to be a new body, with toughened up regulatory powers, but for the national newspaper industry.
“The PCC does a great job, if you ponder on just the regions, so don’t throw out the good the PCC does with the stale News of the World bathwater.
“We have real respect for the work of the PCC in the provinces – all of my journalists carry the PCC Code of Conduct with them at all times.
“Whilst I wouldn’t say we fear the PCC, we deeply respect the organisation and work very hard to resolve any issues.
“Recently I spent hours talking to the PCC about an unusual online complaint – the organisation has moved with the times – and after many letters and discussions with the complainant, via the PCC, we solved the issue.
“I would hate to see the PCC scrapped but I want it to retain all its powers to hold me and my journalists to account, just as we do those in positions of authority and trust.
“So let’s fight for the PCC in the provinces – and not disparage the good work it does.”
Mr Cameron named the members of the panel who will take part in the Leveson inquiry into press ethics earlier this week.
However although it contains two distinguished former national political journalists – George Jones of the Daily Telegraph and Elinor Goodman of Channel 4 News – there are no regional press figures on the panel.
- HoldtheFrontPage is currently carrying a poll on whether the PCC should be abolished. To take part, go to the homepage and scroll down the middle column.
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
Laudable, but Nigel is missing an important point. The PCC has been held out to dry (partially quite rightly) in the national press and on tv so has consequently lost all credibility in the eyes of the public .. i.e. the regional newspaper readers.
Their faith in the PCC has been terminally damaged and something new has to be put in its place.
Report this comment
Nigel the PCC should have been abolished years ago.
I had an issue with them a few years ago and they were the most unprofessional body I have ever dealt with.
They have never been any use to anyone
Report this comment
If it was law, with breaches punishable by large fines, that editors had to publish corrections and apologies on the page the orginal story appeared instead of the sly trick of hiding it away downpaper that might restore some of the industry’s credibility and sharpen the focus of editors.
Otherwise nationals will continue to get away with what they can get away with and tarnish the local media in the eyes of the public.
Report this comment
Blinkered editors get real,the regional press is not whiter than white and the public don’t differentiate between regional and national journalists.
In some peoples’ opinions we are all as bad as each other… like estate agents.
About time the public had an independent body with some teeth to bite back where necessary. It might even make our regional owners think twice before cutting back on qualified staff and increasing the potential for stupid and upsetting errors in copy which will end up costing money.
Report this comment
Apologies to estate agents… they are wonderful people whose welcome ad revenue helps keep me in a job!
Report this comment
Nigel’s right. Hes echoes what I’ve said for a long time – the PCC cannot possibly deal with both the national and local press. It’s too weak abnd discredited to deal with the nationals, and often far too heavy-handed with the locals.
The PCC’s job has never been to enforce the law. The police do that – or should have done in the NOTW’s case. The PCC cannot be blamed for the police’s failings, any more than the BMA or RCN were to blame for Beverly Allitt’s multipe murders in 2007.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/dec/06/ukcrime.health
There should be new bodies: a strong, independent regulator for the national press, with powers to punish and to involve the police; and a PCC-type mediation service for local papers.
Report this comment
Journalism has been propping up the bar at the Last Chance Saloon for long enough to try the patience of the most amenable of landlords. The closing bell has finally sounded in the toothless PCC and its cosy coterie of self-interested editors.
Anyone who believes that the mud from the News of the World scandal will not land on the regional press is sadly deluded.
Report this comment
Whilst the PCC has always done a good job for the regional press where it was respected by journalists, the same cannot be said for the nationals and sadly recent events, have in the public’s minds, destroyed its credibility.
If the regional press try to go it alone with the PCC the public/complainants will not respect its findings. Dead in the water I am afraid.
Report this comment
The only flaw of the PCC is that it has no real teeth. When News International can either blatantly lie, or lie through omission, then what can it do?
The solution, IMHO, is the PCC runs as it is now the constituted but with the full force of the law behind it. And as per a previous comment, Apologies, clarificiations etc, should be given the same prominence as the original story.
Report this comment
@LordJusticewho
There already is a law for hitting newspapers with “large fines” for getting things wrong.
It’s called libel.
Report this comment
As always, Nigel makes some good points, and I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of what he says because I believe the PCC has served us well over the years. But I fear Dave Gledhill is closer to reality.
As an industry, we can’t have two bodies self-regulating what we do, and I think Dave is right that neither the public nor the powers-that-be will accept the staus quo, given what’s happened.
I wonder whether a Press Ombudsman, like the Local Government Ombudsman, arms-length from Government, and able to adjudicate and finanically penalise wrong doers, isn’t the model we should be advocating.
Not what I’d particularly like to see, but we need to throw something to the lions given where we are.
Report this comment