John McLellan: Scotland must have a strong voice on the new press body

WE HAVE had genuinely emotional evidence from people like the Dowlers and McCanns, varying degrees of anger and many unproved allegations from celebrities and much defensiveness from the big beasts of Fleet Street.

But on Wednesday followers of the Leveson Inquiry may be forgiven for thinking it’s going to be a quiet day – it’s the turn of what the inquiry team call regional newspaper editors. And yes, by regional they do mean the indigenous Scottish press, and so my colleague Jonathan Russell from The Herald and I have been called to give evidence.

It is fair to say the inquiry has chugged along at a fair pace, but what readers may not know is that the process of press reform has been moving at an even more breakneck pace behind the scenes as the new chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, former Conservative cabinet minister Lord David Hunt, prepares for his organisation’s demise and its eventual replacement with a new, beefed-up body.

Lord Hunt has made no secret of the fact his association with Brian Leveson goes back to their schooldays in Merseyside and through their legal careers, and without prejudging the outcome of the inquiry, the signs of the direction Lord Leveson is likely to take are not far from the already well-advanced proposals for change currently being developed by Lord Hunt.

While the newspaper industry has yet to see the final details, the new system is likely to include just the sort of regulatory and compensation functions hinted at by Lord Leveson last week, based on civil law contracts between the new organisation and the publishers. What the public recognises as the current PCC is likely to remain in essence as the complaints department of a three-pronged service.

It is possible that Lord Hunt’s proposals could be in place as early as Easter, possibly sooner, leaving Lord Leveson to demand further reform, probably by the summer.

Thus, current editors serving as commissioners are now an endangered species and the chances are the likes of myself, Peter Wright of the Mail on Sunday, Tina Weaver of the Sunday Mirror and Ian McGregor of the Sunday Telegraph will have no role in the day-to-day running of the system, as at present.

While most members of the public will probably agree with this, the difficulty for Scotland is that the only way there is a guaranteed Scottish presence on the commission is through the place reserved through the Scottish Newspaper Society, and without that it is possible there could be no scrutiny of decisions affecting Scottish publishers by anyone with knowledge of our distinctive legal and political landscape.

Currently, there are two Scots on the commission, myself and the redoubtable Esther Roberton, the former chair of NHS Fife, who is a lay commissioner. If she stands down, it is by no means certain she will be replaced by someone from north of the Border.

Some might think this is the right time to establish a separate Scottish Press Standards Authority, but that would mean the vast majority of organisations publishing in Scotland having to operate under two systems, given that all but the smallest firms publish on both sides of the Border.

There is certainly no evidence that Scottish readers have not been well served by the current system and the misgivings about the PCC being aired now apply to all titles. Certainly, no-one should presume that the new system after Lord leveson has reported will be anything but tough.

And if the principle of self-regulation is to be maintained – that is, self-funded – there is little chance of companies agreeing to fund two organisations.

The best way forward must surely be for the new organisation, whatever it is called, to have guarantees built in to ensure the nations and regions retain their input, and in the case of Scotland this could be done by maintaining the SNS right to a place.

Whatever happens, Lords Hunt and Leveson have got to get the system of press reform right, and the signs are that they will. The industry has already accepted a range of principles unprecedented in their breadth, and the sooner we can got on with it the better.

• John McLellan is editor of The Scotsman