2 HOW SELF-REGULATION OPERATES
(continued)
11. Points to note are that:
- Approximately one half of complaints
for which the Press Complaints Commission has sufficient information
to form a view are found to fall outside the scope of the Code,
in which case a letter is sent to the complainant and the case
is merely recorded in a list supplied to the Board;
- Of those cases which are deemed to fall within
the scope of the Code, the Commission secretariat finds an apparent
breach in about 65%. In such cases, the secretariat contacts the
editor of the publication concerned; if the editor accepts that
a breach has occurred, he or she may offer to resolve the complaint
by a process of mediation through the PCC. Remedies secured through
conciliation may include a published or a private apology, undertakings
about future conduct, confirmation of internal disciplinary action,
ex gratia payments or donations to charity;[13]
- Of those cases in which the Commission secretariat
finds an apparent breach of the Code (possibly 20%-25% of all
complaints received), a substantial number—a third or more—are
neither resolved through conciliation nor adjudicated formally
by the Board of the Commission. Such cases include complaints
in which the PCC secretariat, after further investigation, concludes
that no breach has in fact occurred, as well as cases in which
an editor accepts that a breach has occurred and conciliation
is not achieved, but the PCC deems that no major principle is
at stake and that a ruling can be issued without a formal adjudication
by the PCC Board; and
- There are occasions on which, even when a case
is resolved between the publication and the complainant, the PCC
will judge that an important matter of principle is involved and
that it should issue a formal ruling to amplify and publicise
the issue.[14]
12. In recent years, the number of complaints has
remained fairly constant at about 3,600 each year, although the
number of complaints resolved through conciliation is on an upward
trend, reaching 418 in 2006.
Source: Press Complaints Commission memorandum, Ev
50
Approximately one per cent of all cases at present
are formally adjudicated by the PCC Board at its monthly meetings.
The chart below shows numbers of cases adjudicated in each of
the last ten years, broken down between complaints upheld and
not upheld.
Source: Press Complaints Commission
Note:
23 of the 53 adjudications not upheld in 2000 related to only
two distinct issues.
13. If a complaint in which a breach of the Code
is disputed by the publication concerned but is nonetheless upheld
in an adjudication by the PCC, the PCC has one sanction which
it can impose: a requirement upon the publication to publish the
Commission's criticisms in full and with due prominence. All adjudications,
whether or not they uphold a complaint, are published by the PCC
on its website, as are summaries of cases resolved through conciliation.
In 2005, a summary of "case law" established through
the PCC's adjudications was gathered together into an official
handbook—the Editors' Codebook.[15]
The Code Committee plans to place the Codebook online once its
website has been constructed.[16]
13 Ev 49 Back
14
Ev 50 Back
15
Editors' Code Committee, Ev 25 Back
16
Ev 25 Back
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