PCC can work without statutory enforcement, says Follett

This article was migrated from an old version of our website in 2025. As a result, it might have some low-quality images or non-functioning links - if there's any issues you'd like to see fixed, get in touch with us at info@journalism.co.uk.

There is no need for statutory enforcement of the Press Complaints Commission's (PCC) rulings, Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries & Tourism, has said.

In her evidence to the House of Commons select committee on press standards, privacy and libel , Follett said the PCC's code works in conjunction with existing legislation, but issues such as the publication of apologies by newspapers, do not necessarily require a new law.

"We've got a system that's quite complex and quite well balanced, and I'm proud of that system, but what we have to do is try to get the system to work. It would be a failure if we had to put in a statutory measure," she said.

"When you look at that code it's a very tight code, it's a very good code. I still think that this system is a good one backed up by the barrage of laws that we have (...) we've got the two working together."

On the issue of publishing apologies following a PCC ruling against a newspaper, Follett said newspapers should see it as a trust-building exercise with their audiences.

"Public opinion is also something which newspapers have to take into account. There is in this country at the moment a distrust of many newspapers and I think this could be the price for not doing perhaps as much fact-checking as they did in the past," she said.

Prior notification is a necessary part of this fact-checking process, she added. But while arguing that a more standard procedure for this should be introduced, Follett said this could be achieved through improving management procedures and adding to the PCC code, not through statute.

"We have put a barrier between government and press regulation for very good reasons," she told the committee.

"What you risk when you lift that barrier is interference and occasionally short-term advantages or popularity or restricting something for other means. We have to be intensely careful and all the time monitor what we are doing. I like the fact that there is that barrier."

Follett also described the change in the make-up of the PCC's board to include more lay lay people than professionals as a more healthy balance.

In his evidence to the committee in April, Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre said the introduction of a statutory privacy law would have a 'deleterious and chilling effect' on press freedom .

More to follow on today's committee hearing from Journalism.co.uk.