PCC's annual report

The PCC has just released its annual report. Not surprisingly it again claims the year has been another success for self regulation: the rise in complaints to more than four and a half thousand is good, it says, but the small number of adjudications and fall in resolutions is also good. Sir Christopher Meyer will leave his job as chairman this month surrounded by the heady scent of smug self-satisfaction.
It will be interesting to learn how the Select Committee now investigating the PCC's activities views the PCC's performance after hearing the evidence of Gerry McCann and Max Mosley. The two men may have very different reasons for detesting the Press, but both believe that self-regulation is not a sufficient control.
Despite the 4,600 complaints, only 42 were adjudicated by the PCC with fewer than half upheld, most of these such gross breaches that there was little option but to uphold. To read the annual report of the PCC is lead one to believe that the British press is a paragon of professional virtue. It is doubtful if many recognise this as an appropriate description.