Lord McCluskey addresses the education and culture committee. David Sinclair, of Victim Support Scotland, and Campbell Deane, of law firm Bannatyne Kirkwood France and Co, also gave evidence.
Vladimir Putin, Robert Mugabe and other dictators would be delighted with the royal charter for the press, according to the man who went “further than Leveson” in his recommendation on media standards.
Lord McCluskey, who produced a report on press regulation in Scotland after the Leveson Inquiry, criticised the UK Government’s proposals while giving evidence to Holyrood’s education and culture committee.
He said Scotland was “totally ignored” in discussions about the charter.
The three largest parties at Westminster all agreed to a royal charter, due to be approved by the Queen in May, which will establish a “recognition panel” to oversee press regulation.
Lord McCluskey said the Leveson Inquiry into press standards never considered such a method.
“The charter is a creature of this Government it is written by the Privy Council, by those three or four members of the Privy Council who are convened, and is signed by the Queen,” he said.
“A wonderful example to Putin and Mugabe and other dictators to say the way we regulate the press in the United Kingdom is we don’t allow the democratically elected Parliament to have a say, we do it with the Queen signing a document.”
