Baroness Buscombe (pictured) said:
"In such a swift moving and developing environment I would strongly emphasise that only a flexible, non-bureaucratic and evolutionary system like that offered by the PCC can react deftly enough to change. The PCC is showing itself ideally suited both to dealing with specific complaints about alleged intrusions by the press; and to setting boundaries in relation to what behaviour by journalists is permissible and what is not.
When regulating the use of material taken from social networking sites, we now have five key tests for the PCC to look at:
• First, what is the quality of the information? How private is it in itself?
• Second, what is the context of the information? Material that has been uploaded as a joke between friends, for example, may not be suitable for journalistic use in a story about a tragedy.
• Who uploaded the material, or consented for it to be uploaded?
• How widely available is the material online; or, to put it another way, what privacy restrictions were placed on it?
• And finally what is the public interest in publication?"
