There seems to be a new trend of statements from “a Government spokesman, who would not be named”. How can someone be an official spokesman if they demand anonymity?
Government insists that it has modelled the Media Council Bill on the UK Press Complaints Commission.
Certainly some of the words have been borrowed, but certainly not the form.
The UK PCC is a voluntary, non-legislated body. It is not statutory, and is certainly not under the control of political appointees, as proposed by Dr. Brown.
Some background from the PCC:
Given the serious implications of such a course of action, the [UK] Government appointed a Departmental Committee under David Calcutt QC to consider the matter. His task was “to consider what measures (whether legislative or otherwise) are needed to give further protection to individual privacy from the activities of the press and improve recourse against the press for the individual citizen” …
Rather than suggesting new statutory controls, [he] recommended the setting up of a new Press Complaints Commission in place of the [prior] Press Council. The new Commission would have eighteen months to demonstrate “that non-statutory self-regulation can be made to work effectively. This is a stiff test for the press. If it fails, we recommend that a statutory system for handling complaints should be introduced.”
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