Press Complaints Commission >> Cases

Cases

This website incorporates a comprehensive database housing information on complaints investigated by the PCC since 1996.

You can either click on the links below to search resolved and adjudicated cases, or use the free search at the top right of this webpage to search by publication name, complainant name, or by the Code of Practice’s clause name or number.

The complaints that appear on this website fall into two categories:

Adjudicated

The Commission can elect formally to adjudicate on any unresolved complaint. This means that the Commission issues a ruling on the substance of the complaint, which is published on this website. If the Commission finds an outstanding breach of the Code, it will uphold the complaint against the publication. The publication will then have to publish the Commission’s ruling in full on its pages, with a headline reference to the PCC and with due prominence. If the Commission finds no outstanding breach of the Code, the complaint will be recorded as not upheld.

Resolved

A complaint is deemed to be resolved when the PCC has been able to negotiate a resolution with the publication concerned that is satisfactory to the complainant. Some of the ways of achieving this are: the publication of a correction or an apology; a follow-up piece or letter from the complainant; a private letter of apology from the editor; an undertaking as to future conduct by the newspaper; or the annotation of the publication’s records to ensure that the error is not repeated.