In 1962, following the recommendations of the Second Royal Commission on the Press, the Press Council was formed. Twenty percent of the membership were required to be lay members, who were not employed by a newspaper.


In the latter half of 1967, the Press Council Headquarters were moved from Ludgate House to Salisbury Square, a location the Press Council described as the 'very centre of London's newspaper land'.^[3]


During this period the Press Council published a series of guidance booklets.


The Press Council was criticised extensively in the Younger report on Privacy in 1973^[4][5] and in the report of the Third Royal Commission on the Press, in 1977. The third Commission urged the development of a written Code of Practice. The Press Council rejected this proposal, and in 1980, the NUJ withdrew from membership on the grounds that the council was incapable of reform.^[6]

Third era: 1980–1991[edit]

The Press Council had lost the confidence of many in the media,^[7] and the 1980s saw what people labelled as some of the worst excesses of unethical journalism and intrusions into privacy by the tabloid press. In response to two Private Members' Bills promoting privacy laws, the government set up a committee chaired by David Calcutt QC to investigate in 1989. At the same time, under the chairmanship of Louis Blom-Cooper, the Press Council transferred its funding to the Press Standards Board of Finance and began work on the development of a written Code of Practice.


The 1990 Calcutt report^[8] recommended the setting up of a new Press Complaints Commission to replace the Press Council. The new Commission would be given 18 months to prove non-statutory self-regulation could work effectively and if it failed to do so, then a statutory system would be introduced.