Complaints mean success, says PCC chairman

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More complaints against the press are a sign of success for the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) , its chairman said today.

Giving evidence to a House of Lords Committee as part of the inquiry into media ownership and the news, Sir Christopher Meyer said 'for the foreseeable future' a rise in complaints made to the PCC would be viewed as a sign of increasing awareness of the organisation's work among the public.

Meyer said he was 'very pleased' that the number of complaints had risen from around 2,500 in 2003, when he became chairman of the industry regulator, to 4,340 complaints last year.

"One of the problems that we have is a question of visibility, that people should know about us. We have to rely on the general public, not always but very often, to tell us what's going wrong," said Meyer.

"Our mission has got to be to get out there and explain to ordinary people that there is this thing [the PCC]. We're still in that process and, so long as we are, the gross number of complaints will continue to rise."

He described last year's figures, in which a total of 1,227 rulings were made by the regulator from 4,340 complaints, as 'not a bad proportion' and comparable with figures from other media regulators.

Meyer said 'a plateau' in the number of complaints would be reached in the future, but this was not a current concern.

He added that the impact of video and online press regulation on complaint figures had not yet been taken into consideration by the organisation.