Only change can save self-policing

Abstract

Press self-regulation and its official body, the Press Complaints Commission, is opaque, largely unaccountable, under resourced and insufficiently effective. Meanwhile, not only has public trust in Britain’s national newspapers declined, cynicism has set in. Many people who suffer at the hands of the press prefer to go law rather than the PCC. Yet there is a lack of political will to bring about any reform, which is a great shame since the losers are both journalists and the public, argues Martin Moore, director of the Media Standards Trust.