Press Complaints Commission to close in wake of phone-hacking scandal

[dipsydoodle]

The Press Complaints Commission is to be shut down after 21 years, closing one of the most controversial chapters in the history of self regulation of the UK newspaper industry.

The watchdog, which was fatally wounded by its response to the phone-hacking scandal, has confirmed that it will formally close and be replaced with a transitional body which will take charge of press regulation until a new system is set up in the wake of the Leveson inquiry.

The long-term replacement for the PCC is not expected to be up and running for at least a year and may not be in place until 2014 if statutes are needed for a proposed arbitration unit offering a libel resolution service.

In the meantime the newspaper industry has decided that closing the existing self-regulatory body will offer the press a clean break from the past and an opportunity to regain the confidence of the public.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/08/press-complaints-commission-close-phone-hacking

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Not surprising that it would go sometime soon

It had been toothless for years, on other subjects as well.

[oldironside]

2. Not before time.

Let's just hope that the replacement has some real teeth.