Peer defends prosecution of journalists who break editors’ code
Salmond plea for delay shunned
Friday 22 March 2013 THE former judge at the heart of a controversial report backing a system of compulsory regulation for Scotland’s press, underpinned by statue, has defended his plan for tighter controls of the media.
Lord McCluskey confirmed his proposal that Scotland’s press should be subjected to law – a move that could see journalists prosecuted for breaking the industry’s code of practice.
Writing in The Scotsman today, he says his proposals would make it “effectively unlawful” to breach the Editors’ Code of Practice – which sets the benchmark for press standards and behaviour.
Lord McCluskey, who led the inquiry into media standards in Scotland, also revealed First Minister Alex Salmond had twice intervened to ask for the report’s publication to be delayed until cross-party talks on press regulation south of the Border had concluded.
Mr Salmond has already distanced himself from the proposal to impose a compulsory regime of press regulation underpinned by law, which he said was “not the view of the government or government ministers”.
The expert group chaired by Lord McCluskey was set up by the Scottish Government in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry, which heard from victims of phone-hacking and press intrusion.
But the proposed Scottish regime goes further than the measures set out by Lord Leveson, who did not propose a mandatory system, and came in for sharp criticism when it was published last week.
The McCluskey report said a voluntary system, with publishers signing up to a new regulatory system as laid down by Leveson, would not work.
Lord McCluskey, a former solicitor-general for Scotland, said a specific law applying to journalists was needed, in the same way road traffic acts of parliament affect “those who drive motor vehicles on public roads”.
He said the only effective way to enforce the industry’s code of practice was to subject it to a “normal legislative method”, such as the law on contempt of court.
In his Scotsman article, he writes about the need to “identify the behaviour that is to be curbed in the media” and to “make it unlawful” for those practices to take place.
He also insists misinformation surrounding his report needs to be cleared up.
However, a Scottish media expert warned that prosecuting journalists for breaking the code
Lord THE Scottish Government has been urged by four Holyrood committees to improve its approach to climate-change targets.
MSPs welcomed ministers’ ambition but urged them to look again at key areas.
Without further effort, the government risked missing some annual targets and should promote a “step-change” in public attitude to climate change, the reports said. They added that details were lacking and communities must be made to feel part of the solution.
Last October, it was revealed carbon-emission targets for 2010 had not been reached. This was attributed to more demand for energy for heating because of bad weather.
In the first of the four Holyrood reports, Rob Gibson, convener of the rural affairs, climate change and environment committee, welcomed ministers’ targets but said MSPs were “concerned” that some of them would be missed “unless all policies and proposals are implemented”.