Examination of Witnesses (Questions 200
- 204)
TUESDAY 6 MARCH 2007
SIR CHRISTOPHER
MEYER KCMG, MR
TIM TOULMIN
AND MR
RICHARD THOMAS
Q200 Rosemary McKenna: It is about
the industry being more responsible. Do you think it would help
the industry if the PCC would get more support from the industry
in terms of dealing with some of the excesses without necessarily
having to have a complaint brought to you but by simply the other
editors or members of the Commission saying, "Look, there
really are some problems here that we have to address"?
Sir Christopher Meyer: I think
the editors are quite good at that and I would simply cite what
Tim has just said. If you are talking specifically about desist
orders and laying off and being able to intervene in a pre-publication
way, it is very rare to come across an editor who has blankly
said to us—and I cannot think of an editor who has blankly
said to us—"We will not do it". You get grumbling
and moaning, lots of moaning, I think it is a sign of very good
health when they start moaning about us, I do not want them cuddling
us because we are not here to speak for the newspaper and magazine
industry of the United Kingdom. If we make them moan and gripe,
that is good.
Q201 Rosemary McKenna: But is it
effective?
Sir Christopher Meyer: Yes, I
think it is effective. The proof of the pudding is in the extraordinary
public demand for our services. It is not just about complaints,
but all kinds of general inquiries. I think last year we had something
around 8,000 general inquiries, people wanting to talk about the
media, we have become a kind of citizen's advice bureau. Multi-tasking
is what they say nowadays.
Q202 Chairman: Finally, can I turn
to a new area for you which may generate even more inquiries.
You have recently announced your intention to extend your remit
to take in material supplied by newspaper or magazine websites.
Is there not a danger that you are going to create a very curious
position where the PCC is regulating a small number of websites
that happen to be attached to newspapers, Ofcom is regulating
some material that is provided by broadcasters and then there
is a complete wild west beyond that which is not being regulated
by anybody at all?
Sir Christopher Meyer: I think
Tim, who is our audio-visual guru and expert, who had the foresight
two years ago to start discussing this because we were going to
have a regulatory vacuum, if I may pass to him.
Mr Toulmin: I think at its heart
this is about public confidence both in the PCC and in the industry.
If the industry is supplying these services online and it is getting
into audio visual material then I think that consumers, and the
industry also agrees, need to know that the material that happens
to be transmitted in a slightly different way from the written
word on the website is also subject to its same standard. Also,
if you are the person concerned, if you have got some sort of
video that concerns you or the spoken word or whatever it is,
it is only fair that you are able to complain in the same way
and that the same standards and the same restraints apply on the
part of the industry. Actually, there should be a commercial benefit
to the industry as well because they are effectively saying that
their information is rather purer than as you referred to it,
the wild west, there are all sorts of extraordinary things out
there which are broadly known to be unreliable which cannot be
regulated and neither should they be so we think it is in everybody's
interest. With regard to Ofcom, there may be grey areas as we
go forward. This is early days, we are in dialogue with Ofcom
and have been for some time. They have no ambition as far as I
know to regulate newspaper websites. If those grey areas at any
point give rise to a problem then we have sufficient good relations
to be able to talk to them about it.
Q203 Chairman: The likely implementation
of some form of the Audio-visual Media Services Directive, which
is talking about establishing rights to reply is going to complicate
this further presumably?
Mr Toulmin: Maybe, but that has
got some way to go. I think that the industry is in a strong position
having made clear without any direct immediate threat to it that
it is going to extend the remit of the PCC, to be able to argue
that it has taken responsibility already and there is no need
for any legal controls, but we will see how that Directive progresses.
Q204 Chairman: I think that is all
we have. Thank you very much.
Sir Christopher Meyer: Thank you,
Chairman.
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