McCanns hit out at press plans

Plans for a new press regulator backed by a Royal Charter are "a compromise of a compromise" that do not go far enough in holding the press to account, the parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann say.

Gerry and Kate McCann hit out at the Government's proposals, saying they lacked transparency and gave newspapers a last chance at self-regulation they did not deserve.

The main political parties appeared last week to be nearing agreement on plans for a Royal Charter that would oversee a new press watchdog.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats gave a cautious welcome to Tory proposals for creating a body to verify a new regulator set up by the industry.

Mr McCann told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "I think Leveson has been quite generous to the press and more than the behaviour of some sections of the media deserve really.

"They are getting a last chance at self-regulation which for me was actually a step too far."

He added: "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."

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve on May 3 2007, where she had been left by her parents as they dined at a tapas restaurant with friends nearby.

The coverage of her disappearance was given by Lord Justice Leveson as an example of how stories ran "totally out of control".

Giving evidence to the inquiry last year, Kate McCann said she felt like "climbing into a hole and not coming out" after the News of the World printed her intensely personal diary, started after her daughter disappeared. They also criticised other papers' coverage of her disappearance.