The Daily Mail has been cleared of breaking the PCC code after a reporter entered a "private" area of celebrity rehab clinic The Priory without permission.
Priory Group corporate communications manager Karen Croft complained under Clause Eight of the Editors' Code (hospitals).
A Mail reporter visited the Roehampton clinic to find out whether singer Peter Doherty was complying with a court order to visit it.
According to the Mail, there was no security presence at the gate of the hospital, the barrier was up and the journalist was not challenged as she made her way to reception. At reception, she identified herself as a journalist (in accordance with the terms of the code) and asked to speak to someone about the Doherty case. The PCC said: "The commission did not consider that visiting the reception area of the hospital constituted a breach of the code."
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