Stephen Abell talking to journalism students about PCC

PRESS Complaints Commission  enforces journalists and editors to make the right decisions about what they publish. Stephen Abell, Director of PCC, talked to students of Journalism Studies in University of Sheffield about the role of PCC: 

Stephen Abell

a) making rulings and b) settling complaints. 

Everyone can make complaints about what has been published, not only the one who has been affected. PCC wants to encourage complaints because it will mean that it works properly. The more complaints, the better the PCC works.

All members of the press have a duty to maintain the highest professional standards

''The code should not be interpreted so narrowly as to compromise its commitment to respect the rights of the individual, nor so broadly that it constitutes an unnecessary interference with freedom of expression or prevents publication in the public interest'', as it is pointed out in the newspaper and periodical industry's Code of Practice.

PCC coordinates with journalists and editors. ''Usually editors contact PCC and say: We are thinking of doing this..what does the PCC say?'', as Stephen Abell pointed out.

Some of the basic clauses are the ones about privacy, children, victims of sexual assault, clandestine devices and subterfuge or reporting of crime.

Press should be careful to what it publishes both in terms of pictures and words. ''Sometimes pictures are more intusive than words'', as Stephen Abell said.

Part of the slideshow by the PCC Editor

PCC and social networking 

However, you cannot keep things artificially out of newspapers if they are of public interest or they have been spread online. Even if social networking (Twitter, Facebook) sometimes obeys to different rules it cannot ignore the existing ethical principles.

What is important is the context of the initial presentation of information in social networking. Irony, for example, is not transferred very clearly in social networking.