We were too timid with Coulson, says ex-PCC chief

A FORMER director of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has admitted it took a “restrictive and timorous” approach over the possible questioning of Andy Coulson after he resigned as News of the World editor.

Tim Toulmin was in the post when the now-defunct tabloid’s royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for phone hacking.

Giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, he said he “accepted some time ago” that the PCC could have called Mr Coulson to shed light on illegal activity at the paper. But he said at the time the watchdog’s powers would not have had any “traction” with the former editor.

He also expressed “regret” that some people who may have suffered at the hands of the press had never heard of the PCC.

Mr Coulson stepped down from his role after Goodman and Mulcaire were imprisoned for intercepting voicemail messages on royal aides’ phones in 2007.

In the wake of the scandal, he spoke of his deep regrets over what happened and took “ultimate responsibility” for it.

The PCC considered questioning him at the time but it concluded Mr Coulson would not have felt obliged to comply with such a request, the inquiry heard.

Mr Toulmin said: “I said to parliament that I think that was a mistake and at least the PCC should have been seen to ask him, even if he said, ‘no, I’m not helping you’”.

Lord Justice Leveson, chairman of the inquiry, replied: “That would have been truly powerful, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes,” Mr Toulmin said.

Asked whether the watchdog could be accused of taking a “restrictive and timorous” approach, Mr Toulmin replied: “Absolutely. No, I accepted that some time ago and obviously, as I have said, that was the decision that the PCC made at the time.”

Lord Justice Leveson went on to question whether the PCC was a regulator “at all”. A number of witnesses have criticised the PCC, saying the embattled organisation does not have enough powers to be effective.

He said: “Do you think the truth is that the error everyone has made is that in calling the PCC a self-regulating body, it’s believed that it’s a regulator when it isn’t actually a regulator at all?”

“Yes,” Mr Toulmin replied.

Meanwhile current PCC director Stig Abell, who took over from Mr Toulmin, said the media could be asked to operate within a contractual framework of regulation in future.

But he added: “The bottom line with all of this is that if major players aren’t willing to be part of a system then… even though it creates huge difficulties, something more impositional from the state will take place.”

He said a new model would create a “more solid, more explicit and more enforceable” set of parameters within which the press could operate”.