Monday 30 January 2012

Leveson Inquiry: Press Complaints Commission 'not a regulator'



Tim Toulmin, who was in the post from 2004 to 2009, said the PCC was set up by the industry as an ombudsman.
He said the PCC did not investigate what had happened at the News of the World over phone hacking but instead ran a "forward looking exercise".
Mr Toulmin was in the post when Royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed.
He was asked if the PCC had discussed whether to ask Andy Coulson questions after he resigned as editor of the News of the World over phone hacking.
But he said the PCC had decided its powers would have "held little traction with him".
"I later accepted this was a mistake," he said.
But he added that this had not been his decision.
Lord Justice Leveson said it would have been "extremely powerful" if Mr Coulson had refused to speak to the PCC.
Mr Toulmin told the inquiry the PCC could "react quickly to complainants or to events".
Editors admonished
The PCC members did not regard themselves as defending the press, but helping the public remedy problems they had with free press, he said.
The PCC had sent "letters of admonishment" maybe six times to editors if they had been slow to respond to the organisation or had not published a ruling with sufficient prominence.
Mr Toulmin said he thought the PCC did "test the boundaries of its powers" with regards examining phone hacking.
He said editors on the PPC helped give the PCC power because of peer pressure.
Lord Justice Leveson asked if it was an error everyone had made in calling the PCC a self-regulating body when it was not a regulator at all, to which Mr Toulmin replied "yes".
The inquiry is also due to hear evidence on Monday from current Press Complaints Commission director Stephen Abell.
On Tuesday the witnesses will include Sir Christopher Meyer, a former PCC chairman and former BBC and ITV chairman Michael Grade, who is one of the public members of the PCC.
The Leveson Inquiry was set up by Prime Minister David Cameron in July 2011 amid new revelations of phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World.
The first phase is examining the practices and ethics of the press. A second phase of the inquiry, after a police investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World is complete, will focus on unlawful conduct by the press and the police's initial hacking investigation.

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