Calcutt Report (Hansard, 7 March 1994)

§ 7. Sir David Knox
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when he proposes to meet the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission to discuss the Calcutt report.

§ Mr. Brooke
I am looking forward to meeting the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission after I publish the White Paper in response to the National Heritage Select Committee, which I hope to do shortly.

§ Sir David Knox
When my right hon. Friend publishes his response, will he make it clear that if self-regulation of the press is to continue—that is desirable—it will have to be much more effective in the future than it has been in the past?

§ Mr. Brooke
I have commented on the fragility of self-regulation in the context of certain recent cases. I believe that the whole House would endorse my hon. Friend's view.

§ Mr. Soley
Will the right hon. Gentleman also raise with the chairman of the PCC the question of reporting trials? Will he make the point that there is a strong case for the press to report prosecution and defence cases impartially and with balance, bearing in mind the number of wrongful convictions that have involved press coverage? On the question of trials alone, there is a strong case for reporting with balance, because individual liberty is threatened.

§ Mr. Brooke
I must distinguish, in the context of that question, between a conversation with the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission after I publish the report and what might be in the report itself. I am disinclined further to delay the White Paper by enlarging its agenda.

§ Mr. Nicholls
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that the Calcutt proposals, although welcome, would not have prevented the sort of photographs that the Daily Star published, of PC Robertson dying in the street while open-heart surgery was performed on him? That picture, which was in glorious technicolor, appeared because the shooting did not take place on private ground. Will my right hon. Friend learn from that incident and see whether Calcutt can be persuaded to make proposals that would take care of such situations in future—which right hon. and hon. Members in all parts of the House surely regard as a complete outrage?

§ Mr. Brooke
The Government made their response to Sir David Calcutt's second report on 14 January 1993. It is my Department's responsibility to produce a White Paper in response to the National Heritage Select Committee's report. It is not for Sir David to bring forward further proposals of his own.