With its intellectually coherent and courageous decision,the PCC has bitten hard on a trend towards glamorising 'offence'So many people acquire called the Press Complaints Commission toothless that it has nearly become part of its brand: the TPCC. Today's ruling on the Jan Moir column about Stephen Gately's death will undoubtedly fuel calls for its abolition. Yet this ruling, in which the PCC argues that freedom of expression must reach before the distaste and even distress that Moir has caused, and is far from toothless. It is a daring decision that will win the commission few friends and many enemies at a time when its future is under close scrutiny from parliament,the blogosphere and even the press itself.
The commission had three opportunities to sentence the Daily Mail for publishing Moir's piece only six days after Gately's sudden death in Majorca, and the day before his funeral. The complaint brought by Gately's partner, and Andrew Cowles,argued that the Mail had breached clause 1 (accuracy); clause 5 (intrusion into grief or shock); and clause 12 (discrimination) of the editors' code of practice.
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Source: theguardian.com