1.0 Introduction
There is never a definite answer to the question of whether the current system and method of self-regulation in the UK press allows news outlets to intrude on people’s private and personal lives. This paper will help us look at the present system of press regulation in the United Kingdom.
In current UK law there is no legislation that forbids publications from printing articles that can be considered as intrusive and invasion of an individual’s privacy. This however does not mean that there is no regulation governing publications. There is a strict code of practice that all the media outlets both print and broadcast have come to an agreement to adhere to. This code was set up by the Press Compliant Commission in order to regulate the industry. This commission is an independent entity that was set up in the early 1990s following the recommendations of a commission on press regulation that was chaired by Sir. David Calcutt. The commission’s core responsibility is to ensure that the press adheres to the agreed code of practice on sensitive topics such minors and privacy (Fourie 2002: 46).
In case of any breach of the code of conduct, the commission will conduct an investigation and either uphold the complaint or dismiss it in its entirety. With the exception of incidents regarding inaccuracies (these are dealt with by the editor responsible) all other cases have to be adjudicated and published by the commission. This commission came to being ultimately because government wanted to come up with measures to ensure protection of individual’s privacy rights against the activities of various media houses.
The commission that was set up to give recommendations on how to replace the Press council which was the regulatory body before. This new regulatory body, the PCC had a maximum of one and a half years to have its impact felt or be replaced by a system