PCC Chair gives evidence to MPs

Sir Christopher Meyer critical of media law firms

Sir Christopher Meyer, the outgoing chair of the Press Complaints Commission has accused media law firms of using a 10 March Commons select committee hearing on press standards to launch an offensive against his organisation.

Sir Christopher told the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee that law firms were behind evidence given to the same select committee a month ago, in which the press watchdog was criticised. The evidence given by Max Mosley and Gerry McCann was described as ‘a tendentious onslaught’ on the PCC by its chairman. He further told MPs that firms viewed the PCC as the ‘sworn enemy’ because the service the Commission provided was free of charge.

One of the firms that Sir Christopher said had used the previous hearing to attack the PCC, Carter-Ruck, denied that it had orchestrated any attack on the PCC through Cameron Doley, one of its partners. Whilst Gerry McCann was a client of the firm and had appeared at the earlier hearing alongside a representative of the firm, Max Mosley was not a Carter-Ruck client.

Baroness Buscombe succeeds Sir Christopher Meyer as Chair of the PCC.

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