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PCC to regulate newspaper audio and video

Posted: 19/01/07 By: Oliver Luft

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The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is to regulate audio-visual material on newspaper websites.

Interviewed on BBC News 24's Straight Talk, Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the PCC, told host Andrew Neil the move was 'a major step forward' and he welcomed the newspapers' agreement in principle to extending the PCC's remit.

The PCC already regulates online editions of UK newspapers and an announcement about the extension of the commission is expected in the next few weeks.

Sir Christopher Meyer told Mr Neil: "The basic situation has been for some time that we regulate what's in print and we regulate the photos and the words on electronic versions of newspapers.

"We have now persuaded the newspaper and magazine industry of the United Kingdom to agree also the principle of our regulating moving pictures and sound on newspaper's websites."

Mr Neil then asked: "But they'll be bound by the same sort of rules as they are in the papers we pick up in the morning..."

Sir Christopher Meyer replied: "Exactly the same kind of rules. Now, we are going to make an announcement, I hope, pretty soon in the next few weeks about exactly what that entails - there are some definitions to be sorted out - but it's a major step forward, and it's the first time, I think, that newspapers have voluntarily agreed without outside pressure to extend the remit of regulation through the PCC."

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