August 16, 2007
Landmark ruling on phone footage
A newspaper has been criticised in a landmark Press Complaints Commission ruling on the use of video material on its website. The BBC reports.
"The Hamilton Advertiser used mobile phone footage of an unruly classroom, which had been filmed by a 16-year-old student who filmed her unruly mathematics class on her mobile phone in order to explain poor results to her parents.
The PCC agreed that the story was a matter of public interest - but said the paper should have taken steps to obscure the pupils' identities.
It was the first case involving audio and video to be considered by the PCC.
In recent years an increasing number of national and local newspapers have added video footage to their web content and have begun asking members of the public to send in their footage. The commission's remit was extended in February to cover such material.
The BBC's media correspondent, Torin Douglas, said this was likely to be the first of many such complaints to the PCC."
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