Examination of Witnesses (Questions 558-559)
TUESDAY 25 MARCH 2003
MR GUY
BLACK, PROFESSOR
ROBERT PINKER,
MS VIVIEN
HEPWORTH AND
MR LES
HINTON
Chairman: Mr Doran?
Mr Doran
558. Welcome. We have had a huge amount of paper
from you and various missives and we have interviewed, as I am
sure you are aware, five editors. We put the two broadsheet editors
to one side and I have to be honest that, when reading your evidence
and your various missives and listening to the evidence of the
three particular editors, the thought that went through my mind
was that perhaps the lady protesteth overmuch. It seemed to me
a very aggressive approach to what seems a very straightforward
problem and at times very defensive. Would you like to comment
on that?
(Professor Pinker) We do have a good track record
to defend, and we have set out that track record, and certainly
on the experience of my time on the Commission which goes back
to its beginnings there has been a substantial improvement.
559. I think the Committee has accepted that
and certainly when, for example, we listened to Mr Morgan I acknowledged
that fact when he made the case that over the last ten years there
have been huge improvements, and the press we saw ten years ago
is very different from the press now and I have certainly been
impressed by the amount of evidence about the way in which journalists
are now trained and the way in which the Code forms part of the
contract. I do not think anybody disputes that but it is a question
of whether or not it is adequate for the present day, and issues
are raised about the fact, for example, that the PCC is not proactive.
You heard a discussion earlier about perhaps the alleged intrusion
into the families of servicemen who may be lost or killed in the
Gulf War, for example. We do not see the PCC taking a position
on that; it sits and waits for a complaint, and if you want to
comment on that I would be happy to hear from you.
(Mr Black) There are three separate points that you
have dealt with there. The first is the nature of the work that
we put in our submission for you, partly because we welcome this
opportunity to showcase our service to ordinary members of the
public, to showcase the way in which the Code has changed, and
also to highlight some of those issues which are difficult to
grapple with—the implementation of the Human Rights Act,
on-line material and so forth, where there are big challenges
for the future, and we have gone into those in some detail. So
we welcome this opportunity and that is why we put so much effort
in to setting out what we see are the achievements over the course
of the last 10 years. I am glad you raised the issue of proactivity
because it is one of the most important things to come out of
all this. Firstly, I would challenge the notion that the PCC is
not a proactive body. We spend, as section D of our literature
sets out for you, a huge amount of time going round vulnerable
groups of people—public authorities, schools, hospitals,
whatever you might care to name—talking to them about how
to make a complaint and empowering them to raise their own complaints
under the Code. There is a huge amount of empowerment that goes
on. In the course of the last few months I have spent time at
the Scottish Police College talking to family liaison officers,
public sector workers in Northern Ireland, and Ashworth hospital
talking to people there about mental illness—
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