Press Complaints Commission

The Press and Journal conforms to the newspaper industry’s voluntary Code of Practice, administered by the Press Complaints Commission. In most cases we can correct inaccuracies in the next issue. If you feel we have made an error in a report, or have fallen below our usual high standards, please write to the Editor, Derek Tucker, at The Press and Journal, Lang Stracht, Mastrick, Aberdeen AB15 6DF. For information about the Press Complaints Commission, including details of how to make a complaint, telephone 020 7353 1248 or visit www.pcc.org.uk. For permission to copy cuttings, contact the NLA, 7 Church Road, Tunbridge Wells TN1 1NL. Telephone 01892 525273, e-mail copy@nla.co.uk.

WHAT IS THE PCC?

The Press Complaints Commission is an independent body which deals with complaints from members of the public about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines. Our service to the public is free, quick and easy. We aim to deal with most complaints in just 35 working days - and there is absolutely no cost to the people complaining.

The PCC received 3,325 complaints in 2006. Of the complaints that were specified under the terms of the Code of Practice approximately two in three were about accuracy in reporting and approximately one in five related to intrusion into privacy of some sort. All complaints are investigated under the editors' Code of Practice, which binds all national and regional newspapers and magazines. The Code - drawn up by editors themselves - covers the way in which news is gathered and reported. It also provides special protection to particularly vulnerable groups of people such as children, hospital patients and those at risk of discrimination.

Our main aim with any complaint which raises a possible breach of the Code of Practice is always to resolve it as quickly as possible. Because of our success in this, the Commission had to adjudicate on only 31 complaints in 2006. That is a sign not of the weakness of self regulation - but its strength. All those which were critical of a newspaper were published in full and with due prominence by the publication concerned.

As well as dealing with complaints, the PCC deals with a substantial number of calls from members of the public about our service and about the Code. In 2006 we dealt with approximately 8,550 enquiries by telephone, fax and email. This is an encouraging sign of the accessibility of the Commission to members of the public.

The success of the PCC continues to underline the strength of effective and independent self regulation over any form of legal or statutory control. Legal controls would be useless to those members of the public who could not afford legal action - and would mean protracted delays before complainants received redress. In our system of self regulation, effective redress is free and quick.

You can find our more about the PCC here.