APPENDIX 80
Memorandum submitted by Professor G R
Evans
Mr Farrier-Price of the Press Complaints Commission
informs me that your Committee has just announced an inquiry into
the Press Complaints Commission, including its level of service
to members of the public who have experienced a breach of the
editors' code of practice. The Commission will be able to give
you details of my recent brush with the Daily Telegraph,
and it has my permission to supply you with the complete file.
I was very favourably impressed with the way
the Commission handled my complaint. It was done in a timely and
efficient manner. I was given clear guidelines so that I could
easily see what fell within the Commission's jurisdiction and
what I had a right to complain of. I was kept informed throughout
in a courteous and prompt series of emails. The Telegraph
was persuaded to publish a letter setting the record straight.
I have dealings with the press a good deal in
my capacity as Public Policy Secretary for the Council for Academic
Freedom and Academic Standards and I find most journalists intelligent
and responsible ( on the broadsheets ). The Telegraph journalist
in this case broke a number of basic rules and his editor was
slow and reluctant to address the matter until the PCC stepped
in.
There is a particular difficulty for the private
individual who is the subject of an unfair and damaging article.
More people see the article than are likely to see any letter
in reply or printed apology. Working as I do in academe, and living
in both Oxford and Cambridge, I was struck by the number of people
in both cities who told me they had been shocked by the Telegraph
article. I was receiving letters weeks later from outside the
UK. Several academics from all over the UK wrote to the Telegraph
to protest and the newspaper took no notice. I am realistic enough
to know that the letter eventually printed is the best that could
be done. But it would be of value if the requirement to publish
a retraction or apology meant publishing on the same scale visually.
A large photograph of me, taken by the Telegraph some years
ago, accompanied this piece, making sure that it had huge impact.
I doubt if my letter caught nearly so many eyes. It might make
newpapers think twice about spiteful personally damaging attacks
on private individuals if they were likely to have give the same
space to their apology as they did to the original piece.
9 January 2003
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