Complaint ABOUT the Press Complaints Commission

This is Part One of, Complaints about, Criticism of, and Suggestions to, the PCC.

I have touched on this in a previous blog and will now deal with the matter in more detail.
The main reason for this is that I have a deep, and lasting, feeling of injustice in regard to a decision that the PCC came to. This was in connection with a complaint from me about an inaccuracy in a review of a book of short stories that I had written. Large parts of this blog will be in point form in the interest of brevity.

1/ I had written, and "self published", a book of short stories.
2/ I submitted the book, by hand with a covering letter, to the office of a West Sussex weekly newspaper.
3/ In the issue of 02 August 2007 they published a review of my book. 4/ There was an inaccuracy in the review, in view of the general tenor and sarcastic style of the review which, I think, the inaccuracy fully supported, I considered that it was a major inaccuracy.
5/ On 06 August 2007 I handed a letter to the Editor into the paper's office. This letter gave my feelings about the review, pointed out the inaccuracy and asked him to publish a correction.
6/ On 20 August 2007 I handed another letter to the Editor into the office and, as nothing had been published, I repeated my request for a correction to be published.
7/ On 21 August 2007 I received a letter from the paper, it thanked me for my letter dated August 6, stated, -----The content of your letter is noted ----- and then sang the praises of the man who reviewed the book. I could not make out the signature on the letter but it was qualified by a hand written PP and then, in type, gave the Editor's name and his title Editor.
This reply, dated 20th August 2007 could have been prompted by my letter handed into the office on the same date.
8/ Purely by chance I had seen a reference to the Press Complaints Commission in a free local paper. I wrote to them on Sat. 08 September 2007 and complained about the inaccuracy in the review. I sent them copies of the review and all the letters mentioned above as well as a copy of the book. They had everything that was needed to verify the inaccuracy in the review and to confirm that the newspaper had not corrected the inaccuracy. Let me make that point clear, when the PCC received my complaint the Editor should have known for 27 days that there was an inaccuracy and had not printed a correction. This delay was well over the time stated in the PCC's " Code of Practice", this being ----- must be corrected, promptly -----. As a matter of interest the Editor did not admit to the inaccuracy until 02 October 2007, this was some 57 days after he was first notified of the inaccuracy. I wonder if the PCC had, in any way, drawn the Editor's attention to this delay in admitting the inaccuracy and publishing a correction, as called for in their "Code of Practice".

This blog on the PCC will be continued in Part Two.

Frederick W Gilling Saturday 14 November 2009