Press Self-regulation In The Untited Kingdom: Dilemma And Alternatives

Press Complaints Commission (PCC) of the United Kingdom (UK) is one of the most successful media self-regulatory organization in the world. However it has been confronted with much criticism over the years. Culture, Media and Sports Committee of the UK Parliament and Information Commissioner's Office have seperately published three reports in 2006,2007 and 2010, which show that the ethical standard of the press and PCC's performance in several major areas are disappointing. The 2010 parliamentary report suggests that PCC should have the power to impose fines and to suspend the publication of a newspaper or magazine if the Editors'Code of Practice is seriously breached. Also PCC is recommended to act more proactively when dealing with those cases of public interests. Yet PCC disagreed arguing that these recommendations would signal the death of the press self-regulatory mechanism in the UK. To rebuild public confidence, PCC appointed an independent panel to review matters about PCC's governance. The panel published the report entitled The Governance of the Press Complaints Commission:an Independent Review. The report on a whole endorses the self-regulatory scheme but at the same time recommends PCC to reform.This dissertation employs three research methods, i.e. recent documents analyses, statistical analyses and case studies. Based on the research results, this dissertation puts forward several recommendations for the reform of PCC.This dissertation firstly analyzes the recent reports of 2006,2007 and 2010 to map out what criticism PCC is confronted with and what opinion on reform PCC,the UK Parliament and other bodies separately hold. As for case studies, this dissertation uses News of the World phone hacking scandal and the case of Madeleine McCann because they have generated much discussion. The 2010 report argues that PCC's performance in these two cases is disappointing. As for the data analyses section, this dissertation compiles and analyzes the statistics of complaints PCC received, ruled and adjudicated from 2001 to 2010. This dissertation also compares the complaints statistics of 2001-2010 with those of 1991-2000.This dissertation argues that the PCC's performance in dealing with complaints is to some extent satisfactory. Over the past ten years, there has been an obvious increase in both the complaints PCC received and the rulings PCC has given. The latter has increased three times in 2001-2010 compared to that of 1991-2000. Complaints about online articles has contributed to the rising trend. PCC rulings have also increased annually. The research findings also reveal that PCC pays more attention and puts more emphases on those cases concerning items of the Editors' Code of Practice which are regularly complained by the public, such as accuracy and intrusion into grief and shock. The statistical analyses also show that the PCC has paid great attention to privacy protection.However, PCC adjudications have decreased sharply. Also PCC's definition of proactivity is obscure. PCC has not made clear under what circumstances it will carry out investigations proactively and what kind of actions it will take. This dissertation argues that the dramatic decrease in adjudications and insufficient proactive investigations are two of the main reasons why PCC has been labeled as a toothless tiger. As for public awareness, PCC should attach more importance to the publicity of its responsibilities because a big proportion of the complaints received are outside its remit.