Press intrusion victims step up pressure for more reforms

Carolyn Pugsley, director with communications consultancy Freshwater, on 'Leveson 2' and why media reform still matters

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Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared from a holiday flat in Portugal in 2007

THIRTEEN years after the Leveson Report laid bare the systemic failures of press standards in the UK, a group of more than 30 citizens, including Gerry and Kate McCann, have written to the Prime Minister calling for the second part of the Leveson inquiry to be revived.

Their request is simple: meet us, listen to us and take action.

For the McCanns, whose daughter Madeleine went missing in 2007, time has not alleviated the impact of media intrusion. Talking on BBC Radio Four's Today programme, Gerry McCann talked about how “monstering” by sections of the press had made him feel as if he was being “suffocated and buried”.

In their letter to Sir Keir Starmer, sent earlier this month, they argue that successive governments have failed to complete the reforms recommended by Lord Justice Leveson, leaving the public exposed to the same unethical practices that caused harm more than a decade ago.

The McCanns are not alone in making that case. The letter is also signed by Margaret Aspinall, whose son James was killed in the Hillsborough disaster; Christine Flack, mother of the late television presenter Caroline Flack; and Paul Dadge, a survivor of the 7/7 London bombings.