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Columnist Rod Liddle does not like the Press Complaints Commission. The outspoken writer obtained the dubious honour of becoming the first blogger to be censured by the commission in February when he erroneously claimed on the Spectator's website that young African Caribbean men carried out 'the overwhelming majority' of violent crime in London.

The PCC upheld a reader's complaint that the statement was incorrect, arguing that, while the Spectator had published critical reaction to the blog, this did not abrogate its responsibilities under the Editors' Code of Practice, which sets a benchmark for ethical standards within journalism.

As sanctions go, a critical adjudication is the most severe levied by the PCC, and prompted a retaliatory A bizarre and incoherent adjudication blog post, in which Liddle attempted to justify his earlier statement.

But director of communications Jonathan Collett believes that the PCC's criticism would have been mitigated had 'at any stage' Liddle and the Spectator cooperated and amended the piece.

He adds: 'But the Spectator did run our full adjudication on its website so, from our perspective, our job was done. Liddle attacked us for 'political correctness'. Still, you do have to have a thick skin at the PCC. It's the nature of the beast.'

A pre-emptive strike

It has been a busy time for Collett, who joined the commission last November from the Advertising Association. Last year the PCC received 37,000 complaints - against an annual average of 6,000 - although 25,000 of these directly related to Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir's article regarding the untimely death of Boyzone band member Stephen Gately in October.

However, it was not until Gately's partner Andrew Cowles - 'a directly affected party' - made a formal complaint that the PCC became involved. But it did not uphold the complaint, ruling 'the price of freedom of expression is that commentators and columnists say things with which other people may not agree, may find offensive or may consider to be inappropriate'.

'The Jan Moir decision could have been a bad news story for the PCC. We had to work very hard to explain the reasons for our decision not to uphold the complaint,' says Collett. 'As soon as we read the story, we instituted a rapid response team. But we also had to explain what an appropriate response was to 25,000 people who were distressed by the article.'

While the volume of complaints against Moir (prompted in no small part by a Twitter campaign) was unprecedented, Collett has 'developed a sixth sense' regarding the type of stories which might prompt readers' complaints and PCC involvement. 'Death and grief', he says, are among the most sensitive issues. The PCC proactively offers its services to vulnerable individuals caught up in high profile media stories as it did at the times of the recent Cumbrian shootings and in the Raoul Moat case. 'We have become a very proactive service,' he explains. 'We also offer a service offering advice to reporters on how they should handle stories around issues such as transgender, HIV, suicides and mental health. We have specialist teams going to news rooms all the time to give advice about our Code of Practice and how issues should be handled.'

With apparently every weekend bringing news of the latest super-injunction taken out by a celebrity to prevent publication of embarrassing transgressions, Collett believes the role of the PCC has become more pertinent. 'We are an alternative dispute resolution service,' he says. 'Ours is a speedy, low cost solution to disputes with the media, and an attractive option to legal proceedings. Our customer satisfaction rate is 80 per cent.'

An open debate

It takes the PCC, on average, 35 working days to deal with complaints, although many are resolved more speedily. And it will not accept complaints more than two months after publication of an article. But not all complaints lead to action, though. In May, for example, the PCC received 787 complaints, but 49 were deemed outside its remit, 380 were not pursued while 44 were resolved (either by the newspaper amending an online version of the disputed story or issuing a correction or retraction). It could not act on a further 201 complaints because they were from people not directly affected by the story.

Collett believes the PCC, which launched in 1991, has 'a magnificent story to tell' and, on his arrival, found 'that it needed to be told'. He adds: 'I was brought in to increase its profile and modernise its communications strategy.'

Consequently, Collett welcomes a recent recommendation by the Independent Governance Review that the PCC should be more transparent in its actions (and an additional 74 suggestions for operating more effectively). 'We are happy to debate any issue,' he says. 'We are not scared about being open regarding our decisions.'

A seasoned operator

Collett's arrival at the PCC came just months after his former chief executive at the Advertising Association, Baroness Buscombe, moved to take up the role of chairman at the PCC. He is used to roles with access to high profile individuals, and admits that he enjoys the pressure. 'I had been at the advertising Association for two and a half years, and before that I worked at News International [where he was head of public affairs] and, before that, I was press spokesman for Michael Howard [when he was Conservative leader].' Any interesting stories about that time? 'I drove 15,000 miles in five weeks,' he offers. 'And we had people dressed up as the grim reaper constantly following us.' He also had to handle the backlash in the frenetic environment from a few gaffes, such as Howard's failure to wash his hands during a hospital visit when MRSA dominated the headlines, and a battle bus that drove around the country with an out-of-date tax disc. 'There was constant attention on us as we were fighting a general election at the time,' he says. The PCC holds no fear for such a seasoned operator.

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