Press GazetteExpress editor Hill leaves PCC in wake of McCann libel payout15 May 2008
By Dominic Ponsford
Daily Express editor Peter Hill has left the Press Complaints Commission to be replaced by Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright.
Hill’s exit comes two months after the four Express Newspapers national titles all published front page apologies and jointly paid £550,000 in libel damages to the parents of missing child Madeleine McCann.
Wright becomes one of seven editors to sit on the 17-member commission which rules on whether or not journalists have broken the Editors’ Code of Practice.
PCC chairman Sir Christopher Meyer said: “I am very pleased to welcome Peter Wright to the Commission. His appointment means that the editorial membership of the PCC will remain well-balanced, with all sectors of the market represented on the board.
“I am looking forward to working with him. At the same time, I would like to thank Peter Hill, who has served on the Commission for nearly five years, for his contribution to our work".]
Peter Wright has been editor of The Mail on Sunday since 1998. After a history degree at Cambridge, he began his career in 1975 as a trainee at Thomson Regional Newspapers, spending three years as a reporter with the Hemel Hempstead Evening Post-Echo.
He joined the Daily Mail as a reporter in 1979 and progressed through the news, foreign and features desks to become Femail editor in 1988, then features editor and deputy editor. He is married with four children.
The current members of the PCC are:
Spencer Feeney, editor-in-chief, South Wales Evening Post
Colleen Harris MVO, former Director of Strategy and Communications, The Commission for Equality and Human Rights
Vivien Hepworth, chief executive, Grayling Political Strategy
Peter Wright, editor of the Mail on Sunday
Simon Irwin, editorial director, Kent Messenger Group
Ian MacGregor, editor, The Sunday Telegraph
Ian Nichol, accountant, Member of Criminal Cases Review Commission
Lindsay Nicholson, editorial director of National Magazine Company
Esther Roberton, director (non-executive), Scottish Council for Development and Industry
Eve Salomon, director, Sanderel Ltd; director, Salomon Whittle Ltd Commissioner, Better Regulation Commission
Dianne Thompson CBE, chief executive, Camelot Group plc
Derek Tucker, editor, Aberdeen Press & Journal
The Rt Rev John Waine KCVO, member of the foundation, University of Essex
Tina Weaver, editor, Sunday Mirror
Rear Admiral Nick Wilkinson
