The 2008 report from the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) released today suggests 4,698 complaints about British newspapers and magazines in total were received by the body last year – an increase of 8 per cent on 2007.

Other headline figures include: 1,420 rulings on different cases (+16 per cent on 2007); and 524 complaints for Matthew Parris’ Times comment piece on ‘smug cyclists’.

We’ve created some basic visualisations of the figures from last year’s report using IBM’s Many Eyes – some screengrabs are below, but click on the image to see the graphics in their full interactive glory:

Possible breaches by clause in 2008

Formal rulings made by the PCC 2007 vs 2008