A Test for Self-Regulation as Britain's PCC Faces Extinction

Baroness Buscombe, the head of Britain's Press Complaints Commission (PCC), has finally resigned in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at the News of The World. Her departure was inevitable following the avalanche of revelations of malpractice at News International, the country's largest media company.

Buscombe's departure opens the door to a new debate about the future of press and media regulation and one that will surely see an end to the reign of the deeply-flawed PCC, whose credibililty as a watchdog was shredded when it was forced to admit that Rupert Murdoch's editorial chiefs had told bare-faced lies about the extent of phone hacking.

Two years ago when I was at the International Federation of Journalists we commissioned a report on the PCC's performance on the phone hacking scandal. That report, by Belgian journalist Jean-Paul Marthoz, concluded that the PCC was negligent, that it's own inquiries into the scandal were wholly inadequate and that it had compromised its own independence by endorsing the implausible denials of News International and rebuking The Guardian for its persistence in breaking the story. At the time Guardian editior Alan Rusbridger resigned his position on the PCC.

It may be late in the day, but Buscombe's decision provides an important opportunity for a proper discusson on media acountability and the future of ethical journalism in the British media.

Some observers fear that the government's review of media by Lord Justice Leveson will emerge with calls for tough legal controls on newspapers, but this is unfounded. Attachment to self-regulation remains strong across the press and politics in Britain, despite the shocking stories about the sleazy and illegal culture of newsgathering at Murdoch papers and increasing evidence of the "dark arts" used in tabloid journalism elsewhere.

Nevertheless, much will change. The PCC, thank goodness, will not survive. Its arrogant refusal to accept growing evidence of editorial corruption has angered many, but a new body, even one founded on the principle of self-regulation, will need to be given powers to enforce its judgements and to hold recalcitrant editors and owners to account.