Complaint ABOUT Press Complaints Commission

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

11/ Following the first "standard" letter from the PCC, with the two booklets and an explanation of how my case would be handled, I received a letter dated 13 September 2007 from a member of their staff which told me the writer would be dealing with my complaint, and that a copy of my letter had been sent to the newspaper. I subsequently became aware that the writer's title, as it were, was Complaints Officer, I will therefore refer to such members of the PCC Secretariat as Complaints Officers.

12/ My next letter from the Complaints Officer was written on 20 September 2007. Looking at the letter sometime later, when I had obviously developed a critical "mindset", I had the thought that her letter, which summed up the Editor's reply and the offers in it, would look very good on file. One reason for this is that the Editor had qualified his offers by writing "However, if there is an inaccuracy ------ " In fact some 44 days after being notified of the inaccuracy the Editor had not admitted that there was an inaccuracy. The Complaints Officer had not commented on that proviso in her covering letter. I quote the penultimate paragraph of her letter and then comment on it.

"As you may be aware, one additional benefit of the resolution of a complaint is that we would publish a summary of the case - with a wording to be agreed by you - on our website and in our biannual report. This will, importantly, act as a public record of the concerns you have raised and the action required of the newspaper." Reference was made to this point in subsequent letters. As, in the end, my complaint by their rules presumably, was not resolved and so I was denied any pleasure or satisfaction that may have provided. To the best of my knowledge the PCC did not require any action from the newspaper, this in spite of the fact that on at least one count, possibly two, their Code had been ignored by the Editor. I pointed out this transgression of their Code to the PCC.

12/ Having read the Complaints Officer's covering letter I then read the enclosed copy of the letter from the Editor. The short second and third paragraphs gave the reviewer praise, mentioned his 40 years of experience and stated that the Editor had no reason to doubt the integrity of [name given]'s review. There was no reference to any explanation from the man who wrote the review as to how he came to create the inaccuracy, or for any regret on his part for it. There was, also, no suggestion of any regret in the Editor's reply.

I found part of the fourth paragraph surprising, " ----- in fact readers who do not like [name given]'s reviews may well buy a copy on the basis that if he does not like it, they probably will. Criticism works that way." This was another example of the Editor's totally defensive attitude, there was an inaccuracy why not simply admit it ? Further to that why did the PCC not tell him to admit it?

The last paragraph of the Editor's reply starts "However, if there is an inaccuracy ----- "
The word "if" really annoyed me and the case moved on. Again, with hindsight, IF I had ignored the "IF" in the Editor's letter and taken up his offers at face value my case may have been resolved at that point. However I wrote a long reply to the Editor's letter and the opportunity had passed.

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

Frederick W Gilling Friday 20 November 2009