2. Self-regulation
of the British Press was first
set up in 1953, with the creation of the
voluntary Press Council. It aimed to promote
a press freedom whilst keeping a high
journalism standard.
3. Yet,
in the 1980’s the Press Council was
dissolved after members of Parliament and
the public lost faith in the Press as their
reporting was deemed unethical. It was seen
that the Press Council had failed to achieve
its aims.
David Calcutt QC was requested “to consider
what measures (whether legislative or
otherwise) are needed to give further
protection to individual privacy from the
activities of the press and improve recourse
against the press for the individual citizen”.
(http://www.pcc.org.uk/about/history.html)
4. In
June 1990, the Calcutt Report was
published. He recommended that the Press
Complaints Commission would replace the
Press Council and would demonstrate “that
non-statutory self-regulation can be made to
work effectively. This is a stiff test for the
press. If it fails, we recommend that a
statutory system for handling complaints
should be introduced.”
Throughout the early 90’s, the PCC received
praise including from the Government.
5. However, recently the PCC has come under fire
again, after the recent findings of a series of
scandals such as phone-hacking used by the press.
There is now talks on whether the PCC should
continue or be dissolved again, after many
failures were found on their behalf.
