PCC Recent Rulings

These are just a few examples; the PCC contsnatly update their website, and the annual reports are also very useful.

PCC rules against magazine's payment to 'criminal associate' by Roy

Greenslade 20.5.11 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/may/20/pcc-magazines

The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against Pick Me Up magazine over a payment to a woman who slept with a criminal. The PCC ruled that by paying a fee to an associate of a criminal the magazine had breached the editors' code of practice, which forbids all such payments. The case centres on the magazine's publication of a first person account by Emma Cooke who had slept with Scott Riley on the night that murdered another woman, Jennifer North. Mrs North's daughter, Donna Fleming, complained to the PCC that there was no purpose to the story other than financial gain for both Cooke and the magazine. She pointed out that Cooke and Riley had a long-standing relationship and shared the same friends. The magazine countered that the woman was not an "associate" of the criminal, but merely a passing acquaintance. It argued that by having a one-night stand with a man she later found out to be a killer, meant Cooke was also a victim of Riley, and therefore entitled to tell her story. Clause 16 of the editors' code prohibits payments to "convicted or confessed criminals or to their associates - who may include family, friends and colleagues" for stories which "seek to exploit a particular crime". The commission ruled that the sexual relationship between Riley and Cooke meant that the woman could reasonably be described as an "associate". Moreover, the focus of the article was entirely on the woman's association with the murderer, which meant that the story exploited the crime. Although Cooke had been entitled to tell her story to Pick Me Up, the payment could not be justified. PCC director Stephen Abell said such complaints were relatively rare, adding:
PCC Recent Rulings Media Studies @ IGS

"While freedom of expression does mean that newspapers and magazines can publish individuals' stories regardless of their involvement or association with crimes, the code is very clear that payment must not be made to criminals or their associates for stories or information that exploit a particular crime, unless there is a public interest in doing so." Source: PCC ruling

Daily Star warned after flouting PCC photo guidance by Josh Halliday 2.6.11
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/02/daily-star-pcc-dan-hipgrave-daughter

Lawyers acting for the Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave have warned the Daily Star after the newspaper on Wednesday published a picture of his eight-year-old daughter, flouting Press Complaints Commission guidance on the images. Hipgrave, 35, sent a legal notice to all national newspapers two weeks ago after his daughter, Honey, was pictured in tabloid stories relating to the mental health of her mother, the TV presenter Gail Porter. Porter, 40, and Hipgrave divorced in 2004. The musician slammed the Express Newspapers title's decision to withdraw from the PCC as a "selfadmission that they're not going to play fairly". Hipgrave's original legal notice sent out on 20 May asked newspapers not to publish any pictures of Honey "for the foreseeable future" and warned publishers about intrusion of privacy, referring to the section of the PCC code of practice on photographing children. Hipgrave said he would not seek an apology from the Star because "it would fall on deaf ears and most likely end up on page 80". It is understood that a source said that Hipgrave's publicist spoke to the Star's lawyers on Wednesday afternoon and that matters have now been resolved. Richard Desmond's Express Newspapers withdrew from the PCC in January after it stopped paying the fund that supports the regulator. The PCC chairman, Baroness Buscombe, described the decision at the time as "disappointing". A spokesman for the PCC said: "As soon as recent stories appeared about Ms Porter's health, we contacted her representatives to offer assistance in dealing with any concerns about the press. This could include helping frame complaints against the Star, despite the current financial dispute between Richard Desmond and the funding body for the PCC." Northern & Shell had not provided a comment at time of publication.
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Daily Telegraph censured by PCC over Vince Cable tapes by James Robinson
10.5.11 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/10/daily-telegraph-vince-cable-tapes Press Complaints Commission condemns Daily Telegraph for undercover recording of Cable and other Lib Dem ministers

Vince Cable was among Lib Dem ministers taped by undercover Telegraph reporters over his planned ruling on News Corporation's attempt to control BSkyB. The Press Complaints Commission has upheld a complaint against the Daily Telegraph over its level of subterfuge. Photograph: Murdo Macleod The Daily Telegraph is criticised by the Press Complaints Commission today for secretly recording conversations between Liberal Democrat ministers and having reporters pose as constituents. It upholds a complaint lodged last year by the party's president, Tim Farron MP, over the paper's use of subterfuge, ruling that the stories the Telegraph published as a result did not justify the methods it employed. "On this occasion, the commission was not convinced that the public interest was such as to justify proportionately this level of subterfuge," the PCC says. The undercover reporters taped Vince Cable boasting he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch when, as business secretary, he was due to rule on whether News Corporation should be allowed to take full control of BSkyB. The story was leaked to the BBC, which reported it the day before it appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 21 December. Cable came close to being sacked and was stripped of his power to rule on media mergers by David Cameron, who handed them to the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt. The paper also recorded separate conversations with other Lib Dems, including employment minister Ed Davey, who privately said he was opposed to housing and child benefit cuts despite defending coalition savings in October 2010. The PCC, an industry body financed by newspaper and magazine publishers, says clandestine use of recording devices breaches the editors' code of conduct, which it enforces.

PCC Recent Rulings

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This states that papers "must not seek to obtain or publish material acquired by using hidden cameras or clandestine listening devices or hidden devices including tape recorders and cameras". Subterfuge is also outlawed unless there is a strong public interest. The PCC acknowledges in its ruling: "there was a fine balance to be struck". But it said it "did not believe that the Telegraph although acting no doubt with legitimate intent had sufficient grounds, on a prima facie basis, to justify their decision to send the reporters in". It added it had consistently advised newspapers not to go on "fishing expeditions" in the hope of finding stories and said it would be issuing futher guidance on the subject. The Daily Telegraph editor, Tony Gallagher, says the paper accepts the ruling but adds in a statement that the PCC adjudication "has alarming implications for the future of investigative journalism". The paper told the Commission it had received information from numerous anonymous sources, including voters as well as senior political figures, that Liberal Democrat ministers were contradicting their publiclystated views in private. Its owner Telegraph Media Group told the PCC it had sought to expose this contradiction by sending in reporters and that it had been in the public interest to do so. It denied it had been on a "fishing expedition" because it had acted on tip off from politicians and the public. Gallagher said: "We had a duty to investigate their conduct and.....to be effective the use of subterfuge was necessary. Our revelations led to the demotion of a member of the Cabinet, apologies from a string of junior ministers and condemnation from their party leader." He added that the decision: "Increases the obstacles facing newspapers wishing to carry out legitimate inquiries based on material which is often by its nature incomplete - and it limits their ability to expose matters of legitimate public interest which those in positions of power would rather shield from public view."

PCC Recent Rulings

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