Kate and Gerry McCann criticise plans for press regulation

The parents of missing youngster Madeleine McCann have said the Government proposal to regulate the media does not go far enough.

Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, said that plans to marshal the press through a Royal Charter as opposed to a law was “a compromise of a compromise”.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr show this morning the couple said that the Conservatives had missed the point of the Leveson inquiry.

Gerry McCann said that the Royal Charter - which ministers insisted would be tough and effective - would still leave the media with too much control.

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He said: “They are getting a last chance at self-regulation which for me was actually a step too far.

"I feel that the press has lost its entitlement to self-regulation over many, many years and I would have liked to have seen statutory regulation, not self-regulation.”

Royal Charters are used to establish and lay out the terms of organisations, such as the BBC and the Bank of England, and cannot be changed without government approval.

Kate said: “I believe that if the Royal Charter goes through we’ll be no better off.

“What the Government is proposing is not what Leveson proposed.”

The McCanns appeared before Lord Justice Leveson in November 2011 to give evidence as part of his inquiry into press standards.

Speaking this morning, Kate said that the couple were still battling with newspapers over stories printed about the disappearance of their daughter in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

“I wrote to the editor of the newspaper concerned and I got a reply back which made my blood boil,” she said on the Andrew Marr show.

“It was basically telling me that they knew what was best for Madeleine and for missing children, and despite what the police thought, the newspaper thought they knew what was best and that was really concerning.”

Gerry said: “We still have episodes where things are published that we would much prefer weren’t published.

“My concerns are about accuracy and standards of the press.”