Response to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann
Encyclopedia
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
child, Madeleine McCann, went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz
Praia da Luz
Praia da Luz , officially Luz, is a civil parish, village and resort located about 6 km from the municipality of Lagos in the Algarve, Portugal. Also known as Luz de Lagos or Vila da Luz, "Praia da Luz", which means Beach of the Light, is used to refer to both the village and the beach...
in the Algarve in Portugal, in which she was staying with her parents. The initial investigation by the Guarda Nacional Republicana
Portuguese Republican National Guard
The term Republican National Guard may refer to:*Italian National Republican Guard*Portuguese National Republican Guard...
, the first police to be called to the scene, concluded that she had been abducted
Child abduction
Child abduction or Child theft is the unauthorized removal of a minor from the custody of the child's natural or legally appointed guardians....
. After further investigation, the Polícia Judiciária
Polícia Judiciária
The Polícia Judiciária is the main police branch of criminal investigation in Portugal, dedicated to fighting criminality, organized crime, terrorism, drugs, corruption and financial crimes...
(Portuguese criminal investigation police) subsequently stated that there was a strong hypothesis that she might have died in her room.
Over the subsequent weeks, Madeleine's parents implemented a successful publicity campaign that kept the disappearance in the public eye in many countries, resulting in a response to the disappearance that was wide reaching both in terms of the media and public reaction, though there was criticism that the media attention was excessive. There was also comment that the UK media had unfairly criticised the Portuguese police.
By the family
Simple Minds
Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band who achieved worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The band produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s and best known for their #1 US, Canada and Netherlands hit single "Don't You ", from the soundtrack of the...
' song "Don't You (Forget About Me)
Don't You (Forget About Me)
"Don't You " is a song known for its being in the soundtrack to the film The Breakfast Club and performed by the band Simple Minds in 1985. The songwriters were producer Keith Forsey "Don't You (Forget About Me)" is a song known for its being in the soundtrack to the film The Breakfast Club and...
" and included an animation of the word LOOK in uppercase with a reproduction of her coloboma
Coloboma
A coloboma is a hole in one of the structures of the eye, such as the iris, retina, choroid or optic disc...
as a radial line inside the first letter O, which blinks. The second featured a montage of images with a voice-over by actress Zoë Wanamaker
Zoe Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker, CBE is an American-British actress. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company; in films, including the Harry Potter series; and in a number of television productions, including a long-time role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family.-Early life and family:Wanamaker was...
mentioning her coloboma, asking for information of her whereabouts, and to download and display a poster of her from the official site.
The family said that some of the money raised from Madeleine's Fund would go towards hiring campaigning professionals with the aim of achieving the same saturation level of publicity across Europe as they have attained in the UK and the Algarve. The family based themselves in the same holiday resort from the time of the disappearance, at the time stating they would remain there until Madeleine was located, though as part of the campaign the McCanns have visited Vatican City, Spain, Germany and Morocco to raise awareness and on 5 June they made an appeal on the British TV programme Crimewatch
Crimewatch
Crimewatch is a long-running and high-profile British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes with a view to gaining information from the members of the public. The programme is usually broadcast once a month on BBC One...
. However, shortly after being named as arguido
Arguido
Arguido or arguida , normally translated "named suspect" or "formal suspect", is a status in Portuguese language legal systems, including the legal systems of Portugal and Mozambique....
s, the McCanns returned to the UK on 9 September.
Madeleine's father had already made a brief trip to the UK on 20 May 2007 to help finalise the campaign for the search for his daughter. Gerry McCann visited the United States between 22 and 25 July when he met US Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
and experts from the National and International Centres for Missing and Exploited Children. During interviews on network television
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
programmes Gerry was forced to defend leaving the children alone.
The family announced on 15 September 2007 that, beginning in a fortnight, they would be spending up to £80,000, from Madeleine's Fund, on a new publicity drive, involving newspaper, television and poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
advertising in order to further publicise Madeleine's disappearance. This will include posters in rural parts of Portugal and Spain and television advertisements, in Arabic, in Morocco. In late October the McCanns set up a hotline
Hotline
In telecommunication, a hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook...
+ 34 902 300213, manned by private detectives
Private investigator
A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...
, for people in the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
and north Africa to phone with information.
Over Christmas 2007 the family made a television appeal. This had produced, by 27 December 347 phone calls with information with more subsequently. A further video appeal was made, by the parents, at Christmas 2008. This included footage of Madeleine taken in December 2006.
The parents launched a fresh appeal for information, in March 2009, tightly focused on the area where Madeleine went missing. 10,000 leaflets in Portuguese were distributed in Praia da Luz, Lagos
Lagos, Portugal
Lagos is a municipality at the mouth of Bensafrim River and along the Atlantic Ocean, in the Barlavento region of the Algarve, in southern Portugal....
, and Burgau
Burgau, Portugal
Burgau located in the region of Algarve, municipality of Vila do Bispo was a fishing village, now living entirely on tourism. Its most important attraction is the small beach of Praia de Burgau surrounded by hills that protect this beach from the frequent strong wind characteristic of...
together with billboard advertising. However, many posters were promptly torn down with Correio da Manhã
Correio da Manhã
Correio da Manhã is a major daily Portuguese newspaper , published in Lisbon. It is published by the publishing division of the Cofina group.It is regarded as the most read general newspaper in the country....
reporting that the local people wanted closure. The McCanns released an image, on 1 May 2009, of the projected appearance
Age progression
Age progression is the process of modifying a photograph of a person to represent the effect of aging on their appearance. Digital image processing is the most common technique today, although sometimes artists' drawings are used. Age progression is most often used as a forensics tool by law...
of a 6-year-old Madeleine.
By others
Viral email
A viral email is a certain kind of email which rapidly propagates from person to person, generally in a word-of-mouth manner...
, it was not thought to be widely observed.
Robert Murat, a suspect in the investigation, has tried to generate his own publicity by selling his story. However, publicist
Publicist
A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...
Max Clifford
Max Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...
indicated that he would only represent Murat if he was cleared of suspicion of kidnapping. Within the virtual
Virtual
The term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also, differing denotations.The term has been defined in philosophy as "that which is not real" but may display the salient qualities of the real....
world Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
, a virtual Madeleine's Garden has been created. In early July, Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
dedicated his concert on Malta to Madeleine.
J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling
Joanne "Jo" Rowling, OBE , better known as J. K. Rowling, is the British author of the Harry Potter fantasy series...
arranged with her publishers for a poster bearing the face of the missing child to be made available to book sellers when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was launched on 21 July. Rowling said that she hoped that the posters would be displayed prominently in shops all over the world.
Political reaction
The Portuguese Ambassador in London, António Santana Carlos said on 8 May 2007 that the case was of "great concern" to Portugal and asked people to trust the police, amidst growing criticism of their handling of the case. President Aníbal Cavaco SilvaAníbal Cavaco Silva
Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC , is the President of Portugal. He won the Portuguese presidential election on 22 January 2006 and was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on 9 March 2006....
announced on 9 May that he was following the case "with great concern", adding that the police were "doing everything to find the child alive."
On 9 May, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's spokesperson said that the then Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
was following the case closely and that "we are helping in whatever way we can". On 16 May, coinciding with the launch of the fighting fund, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
delivered a similar message to relatives of Madeleine. Former Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some counties, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, but is significantly different, though both...
John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
also commented on the case, saying at Prime Minister's Question Time
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime minister's questions is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom that takes place every Wednesday during which the prime minister spends half an hour answering questions from members of parliament...
"I'm sure that the thoughts of the whole House will be with them at this terrible time."
On 26 May, a spokesman for the McCann family confirmed that Gordon Brown had telephoned the McCanns. Though the spokesman stated that the details of the conversations would remain private, he did confirm that "During them, Mr Brown offered both Gerry and Kate his full support in their efforts to find Madeleine." In late September Foreign Secretary
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...
David Miliband
David Miliband
David Wright Miliband is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for South Shields since 2001, and was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2007 to 2010. He is the elder son of the late Marxist theorist Ralph Miliband...
telephoned Gerry.
The German Justice Minister, Brigitte Zypries
Brigitte Zypries
Brigitte Zypries is a German politician. She was Federal Minister of Justice of Germany from 2002 to 2009. She is member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .- Career :...
, said at a meeting of G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
justice ministers in Munich on 3 June, that it should be assumed that Madeleine had been abducted by a gang that passes on children to be abused. But the Portuguese prime minister, José Sócrates
José Sócrates
José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, GCIH , commonly known by José Sócrates , is a Portuguese politician who was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011....
, praised investigators in September 2007, following criticism in the British media of the police handling of the case. Sócrates said that he had total confidence in the work carried out by the Portuguese police.
Theories by experts
The disappearance provoked differing analyses by experts. Shortly after Madeleine went missing two former Scotland YardScotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
commanders expressed the view that she had been abducted. Roy Ramm considered that it was a carefully planned kidnapping by someone who had been watching the child. John O'Connor was of the view that Madeleine had wandered out of the apartment on her own and was subsequently abducted. O'Connor opined that she was likely to be nearby and recommended a thorough search of surrounding occupied premises. This hypothesis was also supported by criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas who said, in May 2008, that he believed what happened was that Madeleine woke up, walked around the apartment, found the back patio door was insecure and wandered out. It was at this point that she was most likely abducted by an opportunistic predatory paedophile.
Paulo Sargento, a criminal psychologist
Criminal psychology
Criminal psychology is the study of the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions of criminals. It is related to the field of criminal anthropology. The study goes deeply into what makes someone commit crime, but also the reactions after the crime, on the run or in court...
at Lusófona University
Universidade Lusófona
Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias is the largest Portuguese private university, and the main institution of Grupo Lusófona, which administers other universities and colleges in Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique...
in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, however had produced in October 2007 a 3D reconstruction of events at the Ocean Club on the evening Madeleine disappeared. His view was that kidnapping would be inconsistent with the evidence. The case was also reviewed by the notable forensic investigator Professor David Barclay of Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University is located in Aberdeen, Scotland. Building on over 250 years involvement in education, it was granted university status in 1992. Robert Gordon University currently has approximately 16,407 students at its two campuses at Garthdee and the City Centre, studying on over 145...
. His opinion was that the police were right to consider the McCanns as suspects and that the child is probably dead.
Madeleine's Fund
A fund-raising company, known as Madeleine's Fund: Leaving No Stone Unturned, was launched in LeicesterLeicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
on 16 May 2007. The Fund is a limited company, not a registered charity
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
, because its objectives are not wide enough to satisfy Charity Commission
Charity Commission
The Charity Commission for England and Wales is the non-ministerial government department that regulates registered charities in England and Wales....
criteria for UK charities. The objectives include helping the extended family with their expenses (to prevent abuse, payments can only be authorised by the independent members of the board who are not family members) and continuing the investigation independently should that prove necessary. Any excess funds would be used to help search for other abducted children. The Fund's website reportedly received 58 million hits and 16,000 messages of support by 18 May, only two days after its launch. Over £1,095,000 had been raised by 30 October 2007. Two £2,000 monthly re-payments on the McCanns' mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
were made from the Fund in July and August.
Legal costs funding
The trustees of Madeleine's Fund announced in September that the fund would not be used to pay the McCanns' legal costs. Initially, the McCanns considered setting up a separate appeal fund for legal expenses. However, Richard BransonRichard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
created a fund for the McCann's legal expenses, including those of their current advisor, Michael Caplan
Michael Caplan
Michael Caplan QC is an English solicitor.-Biography:Caplan read law at King's College London, before undertaking study at The College of Law in London. Articled at Lickfolds Wiley & Powles, he qualified as a solicitor in 1977 and joined Kingsley Napley in 1978, where he is now a partner. Caplan...
QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, a solicitor and partner in the London firm of Kingsley Napley. Stephen Winyard came out in December as having contributed £100,000 to the McCanns' defence fund, which paid for DNA tests
Genetic fingerprinting
DNA profiling is a technique employed by forensic scientists to assist in the identification of individuals by their respective DNA profiles. DNA profiles are encrypted sets of numbers that reflect a person's DNA makeup, which can also be used as the person's identifier...
carried out on the Renault Scénic
Renault Scénic
The Renault Scénic is a compact MPV produced by French automaker Renault, the first to be labelled as such in Europe. It is based on the chassis of the Mégane small family car. It became 1997 European Car of the Year on its launch in late 1996...
hire car used by the McCanns. He also revealed Brian Kennedy as another donor.
Potential frauds
A number of unofficial websites were registered which had domain names that contained slight misspellings of Madeleine's name, plus key words likely to be used in searches. This is a practice known as typosquattingTyposquatting
Typosquatting, also called URL hijacking, is a form of cybersquatting, and possibly brandjacking which relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser...
and these websites contained content not related to Madeleine.
There have also been people collecting money on the false premise
False premise
A false premise is an incorrect proposition that forms the basis of a logical syllogism. Since the premise is not correct, the conclusion drawn may be in error...
that they were representing Madeleine's Fund, one of whom, Debbie Clifton, was jailed for 90 days.
On 28 June 2007 police arrested an Italian man and a Portuguese woman at a villa in Sotogrande
Sotogrande
Sotogrande is the largest resort and privately owned residential development in Andalusia. A large part of the resort is administered by NH Hotels and it is considered part of the NH World...
, Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
over allegations that they had tried to defraud the McCanns by claiming a reward for information about their daughter. However, police said that there was no direct link with Madeleine's kidnap. Then on 6 July police in the Netherlands arrested a man who allegedly demanded two million euros from the McCanns for information about their missing daughter.
Libel actions
The McCanns announced on 31 August that they were suingLawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
the Portuguese tabloid Tal & Qual
Tal & Qual
Tal & Qual is a discontinued weekly Portuguese tabloid newspaper, established in July 1980, that was published on Fridays. The newspaper was part of the Controlinveste group. Its last edition came out on 28 September 2007...
for libel
Slander and libel
Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...
. The newspaper reported that the "police believe" that the McCanns killed Madeleine, suggesting she may have died in an accident or from a drugs overdose. The McCanns' lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, said the couple's image had been "dragged through the dirt" by "character-assassinating, tabloid-style" news reports, adding that the press "has engaged in a horrific exercise in scandal-mongering, replete with rumours and lurid commentaries...to sell more TV time and newspaper space to advertisers". The police stressed that the McCanns were not suspects.
Tal & Qual stood by the story. The journalist who wrote the article, Catarina Vaz Guerreiro, said "I can't reveal my source, but I have complete trust in them. I strongly believe that the person that gave us this information is telling the truth." The paper ceased publication after 28 September 2007, because of a drop in circulation.
The ASFIC's (Associação Sindical dos Funcionários de Investigação Criminal da Polícia Judiciária) General Secretary, Carlos Garcia, declared on 10 August 2007 that the union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
representing the PJ intended to take legal action against those British journalists who had accused Portuguese police officers of forging evidence. He stated that, at the beginning of the investigation, a joint working group had been created with the British police, and that they had been working in close cooperation. Thus when the Portuguese police is criticised, so too is the British police. He claimed that the number of abductions resulting in murder was a decisive factor that determined the different methods of investigation adopted by the two forces.
In March 2008, the McCanns launched a libel suit against the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
and its sister newspaper, the Daily Star, as well as their Sunday equivalents, following the newspapers' coverage of the case. The action concerned more than 100 stories across the four newspapers, which accused the McCanns of causing Madeleine's death and then covering it up. One immediate consequence of the action was that Express Newspapers pulled all references to Madeleine from its websites. In a settlement reached at the High Court of Justice
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
, the newspapers agreed to run a front-page apology to the McCanns on 19 March 2008, publish another apology on the front pages of the Sunday editions of 23 March and make a statement of apology at the High Court. Guardian media commentator Roy Greenslade
Roy Greenslade
Roy Greenslade is Professor of Journalism at City University London and has been a media commentator since 1992, most notably for The Guardian....
said it was "unprecedented" for four major newspapers to offer front-page apologies, but also said that it was more than warranted given that the papers had committed "a substantial libel" that shamed the entire British press.
In its apology, the Express stated that "a number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up. We acknowledge that there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance." The McCanns also accepted £550,000 ($1.1 million) damages and costs. They promised to pay the damages into Madeleine’s Fund.
Robert Murat instigated defamation proceedings against Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
and 11 British newspapers, in April 2008. He used London solicitors Simons Muirhead & Burton on a conditional fee
Contingent fee
A contingent fee or conditional fee is any fee for services provided where the fee is only payable if there is a favourable result...
agreement. The first paper to settle was The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
who published an apology on 15 May but paid no damages. The newspaper groups Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers
Express Newspapers
Northern & Shell is a British publishing and television group. The holding company name is "Northern and Shell Network Ltd". Launched and founded in December 1974 and currently owned by Richard Desmond, it publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday, and the...
, MGN Limited
Trinity Mirror
Trinity Mirror plc is a large British newspaper and magazine publisher. It is Britain's biggest newspaper group, publishing 240 regional papers as well as the national Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, and the Scottish Sunday Mail and Daily Record. Its headquarters are at Canary Wharf in...
and News Group Newspapers
News International
News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
settled with Murat, on 17 July, for a £600,000 payout. They also issued a public apology in the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
. BSkyB also paid him damages in a separate libel case. Sergey Malinka, and Murat's girlfriend Michaela Walczuch, accepted more than £100,000 each.
The friends of the McCanns, known as the Tapas Seven, were awarded around £375,000 in damages and secured printed apologies from Express Newspapers. The friends have donated the settlement monies to the Fund. The apologies, printed in both the Daily Express and Daily Star, said "In articles ... we suggested that the holiday companions of Kate and Gerry McCann might have covered up the true facts concerning Madeleine McCann's disappearance and/or misled the authorities investigating her disappearance. We also reported speculation that ... Dr Russell O'Brien, was suspected of involvement with Madeleine's abduction. We now accept that these suggestions should never have been made and were completely untrue. ..."
The McCanns applied for an injunction, on 8 December 2009, prohibiting sale of the book, written by Gonçalo Amaral, Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie), and launched a libel suit against Amaral.
Books
- Maddie 129, ISBN 9789898028617, that covers the 129 days between Madeleine's disappearance and the McCanns' return to Rothley. The book claims to identify contradictions and unanswered questions in the accounts of the McCanns and their friends. It was published in early November 2007, in English by Prime BooksPrime BooksEdited by two-time Hugo-nominee and 2006 World Fantasy-winner Sean Wallace, Prime Books is an award-winning independent publishing house, specializing in a mix of literary/commercial anthologies, collections, novels, and two magazines: Fantasy Magazine and Lightspeed Magazine. Some of its...
, and written by two Portuguese journalists Hernâni Carvalho and Luís Maia. - A Culpa dos McCann (The Guilt of the McCanns), ISBN 9898014814, was published in Portugal in December 2007. Written by Portuguese daily newspaper Correio da ManhãCorreio da ManhãCorreio da Manhã is a major daily Portuguese newspaper , published in Lisbon. It is published by the publishing division of the Cofina group.It is regarded as the most read general newspaper in the country....
editor-in-chief Manuel Catarino, it was published by Guerra & Paz. - Madeleine: A Heartbreaking and Extraordinary Disappearance, ISBN 9780850793482, was published in December 2007 by Express NewspapersDaily ExpressThe Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
and written by Robert Downing. - A Estrela de Madeleine (The Star of Madeleine), ISBN 978-9722338905, written by Paulo Pereira Cristóvão, was published by Editorial Presença.
- O Enigma da Praia da Luz (The Enigma of Praia da Luz), ISBN 9789898014917, was written by Francisco Duarte de Carvalho and was published by Editora Guerra & Paz.
- Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie), ISBN 9789898174123, written by Gonçalo Amaral, who had originally headed the police investigation, was published by Guerra & Paz on 24 July 2008. In the book, Amaral detailed his belief that Madeleine died in the family's holiday apartment.
- What really happened to Madeleine McCann? subtitled '60 reasons which suggest that she was not abducted', ISBN 9780950795478, was written by Tony Bennett and was published on 31 October 2008 by The Madeleine Foundation.
- Madeleine, ISBN 9780593067918, was written by Kate McCann and was published by Bantam PressBantam PressBantam Press is an imprint of Transworld Publishers which is a British publishing division of Random House.It is based on Uxbridge Road in Ealing near Ealing Broadway station, the same address as Transworld....
on 12 May 2011.
BBC Panorama
The BBC PanoramaPanorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...
current affairs programme screened an edition called 'The Mystery of Madeleine McCann' on 19 November 2007. It attracted 5.3 million viewers.
The programme reviewed the evidence that was currently publicly available but did not come to a conclusion on what happened to Madeleine.
The original producer of the programme walked out, claiming that criticism of the media and the Portuguese police had been toned down for the broadcast version.
Proposed documentaries
The McCanns have given permission for talks to open about the possibility of the disappearance being made into a documentary film. Spokesman Clarence Mitchell confirmed that a meeting, with talent agencyTalent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, film directors, musicians, models, producers, professional athletes, writers and other people in various entertainment businesses. Having an agent is not required, but does help the artist in getting jobs...
and production company IMG
IMG (business)
IMG, originally known as the International Management Group is a global sports and media business headquartered in New York City.-History:...
to discuss a possible film, was held in December 2007, but the proposal was abandoned.
Mitchell also confirmed, in March 2008, that discussions were taking place with ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
and other companies over the possibility of the McCanns appearing in a documentary, which would focus on missing children in general and the different initiatives used to help look for them. The programme, Madeleine, One Year On: Campaign For Change, was broadcast on ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
on 30 April 2008. The programme's producers said the McCanns had no editorial control and were not paid, although £10,000 was donated to the Find Madeleine fund.
TVI documentary
A television documentary, Maddie, a Verdade da Mentira (Maddie, the Truth of the Lie), based on the book, by Gonçalo Amaral, of the same name, was produced by TVI. It was broadcast on 13 April 2009. The documentary pulled in an audience of over 2 million.Implications for television programmes and films
On 9 May 2007, ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
announced it would be rewriting a planned child kidnap plot, despite having already filmed some scenes, from their popular soap Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. Similarly on 23 May, the BBC also announced that it was scrapping a storyline
Subplot
A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance...
from rival soap EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, that had already been filmed, which also was to feature the kidnapping of a child. In both cases these plot lines were removed or altered due to the parallel with the Madeleine case, and because the channels did not want to cause further distress to the McCann family. The BBC also stated that they did not want to upset other viewers and felt that the plot would have been "inappropriate" to broadcast at that time.
ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
were criticised, in September 2007, over the showing of Torn
Torn (TV series)
Torn was a three-part original television drama series, which was broadcast on ITV from 19 September 2007 to 3 October 2007. The drama has been subject to controversy due to the fact it claims to be based on actual events. It has been criticised because of its similarities to the disappearance of...
, a three-part original drama series. The plot involved the disappearance of a four-year-old girl and the family's search for her. ITV responded to the criticism by stating that Torn had been written two years earlier and filmed two months before Madeleine disappeared. Also in September 2007, actor and director Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
postponed the UK release of his film Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone
Gone Baby Gone is a 2007 American crime drama-mystery film directed by Ben Affleck and starring his brother Casey Affleck. The screenplay by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and Shutter Island...
, which had been scheduled for release on 28 December,
to 18 April 2008. Its plot centres on the abduction of a four-year-old girl who is left at home alone by her mother. The actress who plays the girl, Madeline O'Brien, reportedly resembles Madeleine. According to Affleck, the release of the film in Britain was delayed because those involved with the film didn't want to "touch a nerve or inflame anybody's sensitivities."
Tributes
Appeals
There were many appeals for Madeleine's safe return. These ranged from her family to celebrities, and included church leaders and the police.From the family
Her father, Gerry McCann, said, "Words cannot describe the anguish and despair that we are feeling. Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her Mummy, Daddy, brother and sister." He went on to say that the family would leave "no stone unturned" in the search for Madeleine and that he and his wife "remained positive."Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann, drew up a poster to circulate in a chain email to help find the child. She also commented during a live phone interview that there was little coverage of the case in other countries apart from the UK and Portugal.
From the police
On 21 May 2007, the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection CentreChild Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre , formed in April 2006, is a UK cross agency and cross business department of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which is tasked to work both nationally and internationally to bring online child sex offenders, including those involved in the...
(CEOP) reported that British police are calling on visitors to the Ocean Club Resort, Praia da Luz, or the surrounding areas in the two weeks leading up to Madeleine’s disappearance on Thursday 3 May to provide copies of any relevant photographs taken during their stay, in an attempt to identify an abductor using a biometric
Biometrics
Biometrics As Jain & Ross point out, "the term biometric authentication is perhaps more appropriate than biometrics since the latter has been historically used in the field of statistics to refer to the analysis of biological data [36]" . consists of methods...
facial recognition application
Facial recognition system
A facial recognition system is a computer application for automatically identifying or verifying a person from a digital image or a video frame from a video source...
, through which the features of bystanders in those photographs could be compared to those of international sex offenders and other criminals. By 1 June, over one thousand photographs had been uploaded.
From religious leaders
On 11 May 2007 Roman Catholic ArchbishopArchbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
Mario Conti
Mario Joseph Conti
Mario Joseph Conti is the current Catholic Archbishop of the Metropolitan see of Glasgow, Scotland.-Life:Mario Joseph Conti was born on 20 March 1934, in Elgin, Moray, son of Louis Joseph Conti and Josephine Quintilia Conti...
of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
said that his prayers would continue for the safe return of Madeleine Then on 30 May, Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, at an audience in the Vatican
Apostolic Palace
The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican...
with the McCanns, promised to pray for the girl's safe return.
From football
Manchester UnitedManchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
footballer Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH, , commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team...
, who is Portuguese, made a televised appeal on MUTV
Manchester United TV
MUTV is an English subscription based television channel, operated by Manchester United FC. The channel first broadcast on 10 September 1998....
for her safe return saying "I was very upset to hear of the abduction of Madeleine McCann and I appeal to anyone with information to come forward - please come forward." Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
and England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
footballer John Terry
John Terry
John George Terry is an English professional footballer. Terry plays in a centre back position and is the captain of Chelsea in the Premier League...
and his Portuguese team-mate Paulo Ferreira
Paulo Ferreira
Paulo Renato Rebocho Ferreira is a Portuguese footballer who plays for Chelsea as a defender. However, in his recent years, Ferreira has been noted to play as an attacking forward, in which he is famous for his through balls out to the wingers and/or striker-Early career:He started his career in...
said that they were "devastated to hear that young Maddy was abducted. Our thoughts and feelings go out to her parents, her family and we are urging anyone out there with any information at all, please, please, please come forward." On 11 May 2007, David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
also made a public appeal. "If you have seen this little girl please could you go to your local authorities or police and give any information that you have," said Beckham, holding up poster with a photograph of Madeleine.
After a picture was released of Madeleine in an Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
shirt, Everton's Portuguese footballers Nuno Valente and Manuel Fernandes appealed for any news on her whereabouts and Phil Neville issued the following statement on behalf of the club. "Everton has fans all over the world and I know that they, along with everyone connected with the football club, are hoping and praying for Madeleine's safe return. Our thoughts are very much with the family at this extremely distressing time." Manager David Moyes
David Moyes
David William Moyes is an association football manager and former player, currently managing English Premier League club Everton. He was the 2003, 2005 and 2009 League Managers Association Manager of the Year...
added "Everybody here is desperately wanting to hear good news and my thoughts and prayers are with the family. If anybody out there knows anything, please come forward". Celtic
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
footballer Neil Lennon
Neil Lennon
Neil Francis Lennon is a former footballer from Northern Ireland. He is the current manager and former captain of Celtic....
made an appeal for Madeleine's safety and yellow armbands were worn on 12 May 2007 against Aberdeen
Aberdeen F.C.
Aberdeen Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen...
to mark her fourth birthday.
A video appealing for help with the search for Madeleine was broadcast to Spanish football fans visiting the city of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
for the UEFA Cup
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Europa League is an annual association football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club football contest after the UEFA Champions League...
final on 16 May. Another film was broadcast at half-time during the English FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
Final on 19 May. Before their departure for the Champions League final
2007 UEFA Champions League Final
The 2007 UEFA Champions League Final was an association football match between A.C. Milan of Italy and Liverpool F.C. of England on 23 May 2007 at the Olympic Stadium, Athens, Greece. The showpiece event was the final match of the 2006–07 season of Europe's premier cup competition, the UEFA...
on Monday 21 May, Liverpool FC's squad were photographed with a banner appealing for any information on Madeleine's whereabouts.
From cricket
The England cricket team wore yellow ribbons during the Lords'Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
Test match
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
against the West Indies, in May 2007, to show their support for Madeleine. A picture of Madeleine was also shown on the big screen at the match.
From education
In an effort to publicise her disappearance, the pupilsStudent
A student is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution. In some nations, the English term is reserved for those who attend university, while a schoolchild under the age of eighteen is called a pupil in English...
of Bishop Ellis Catholic Primary School
Bishop Ellis Catholic Primary School
Bishop Ellis Catholic Primary School is a voluntary aided Catholic primary school located in Thurmaston, Leicestershire, England. Approximately 315 pupils aged 5–11 attend the school under the direction of the Head teacher Gail Neill....
, the school that Madeleine would have attended from September 2007, lined up in the school's playground
Playground
A playground or play area is a place with a specific design for children be able to play there. It may be indoors but is typically outdoors...
on 18 June to spell out Find Madeleine. This was easily readable from the air. In August the school announced that they had saved a desk, coat peg and locker for the child.
Of the public and political reaction
The scale of the public reaction provoked negative comment from a number of media commentators. On 16 May 2007 on BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, Matthew Parris
Matthew Parris
Matthew Francis Parris is a UK-based journalist and former Conservative politician.-Early life and family:...
said that politicians' displays of concern were "hollow". He also claimed that politicians "read the common newspapers and they decide this is what the common people feel, and they get all caught up with it. But it's all to do with trying to associate themselves with the common herd and they're not part of it. They're politicians". He went on to say, in his column on 17 May, that MPs
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
wearing yellow ribbons was mawkish and an attempt to "tap in to the emotions of the mob". Then on 19 May, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described the public reaction as hysteria and drew a parallel with the response to the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
campaign.
Writing in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
on 16 September, India Knight
India Knight
India Knight is a British journalist and author. She is known for her contribution to the British media, as well as her books: My Life on a Plate, Don't You Want Me?, The Shops, Neris and India's Idiot-Proof Diet and The Thrift Book , all of which are published by Penguin books...
criticised the on-line community for its censorious attitude and its willingness to rush to judgement whilst pointing out that the McCanns had contributed to the public's obsession with the case by their extensive and well-orchestrated media campaign. A debate on the disappearance was held at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
on 30 January 2008. Though the debate was inconclusive, the stridently critical attitude of the on-line community towards the McCanns, noted by Knight, also manifested itself in the audience reaction.
Importance of the coverage
Some have suggested that the high level of media coverage could be attributable to Madeleine's race, nationality, or socio-economic statusMissing white woman syndrome
Missing white woman syndrome or missing pretty girl syndrome is a term used by some media and social critics to describe the seemingly disproportionate degree of coverage in television, radio, newspaper and magazine reporting of a misfortune, most often a missing person case, involving a young,...
. The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, in an editorial on 15 May 2007, described the media coverage as showing a warped sense of priorities and condemned the criticism of the Portuguese authorities as jingoism
Jingoism
Jingoism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocation of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests...
. In his 17 May column in Portugal's Público newspaper, the former head of Portugal's bar association, José Miguel Júdice, said the enormous mobilisation was because the little girl "is English, white, and the daughter of doctors."
On 18 May, Inter Press Service
Inter Press Service
Inter Press Service is a global news agency. Its main focus is the production of independent news and analysis about events and processes affecting economic, social and political development....
drew attention to the fact that that some observers point out that Madeleine comes from a well-heeled British family (both of her parents are doctors), unlike so many Portuguese or immigrant children whose disappearance has drawn scant attention from the press. There has also been criticism of the weight put on this case in the light of many other, unpublicised, children's disappearances.
Also on 18 May, The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
commented that "... there was evidence that public opinion, while strongly supportive of the child's distraught parents Kate and Gerry McCann, was growing alarmed at what it viewed as relentless, almost prurient coverage." Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
presenter Alex Thomson has said the Madeleine McCann story did not deserve its news ranking. "I've been sickened by the way the media have allowed themselves to be taken for a full-scale ride by the McCanns." He added that the parents' conduct, "a contributory factor in the abduction, was largely downplayed or ignored altogether by sycophantic, gullible blanket coverage."
Raymond Snoddy wrote in Marketing: "To what extent has all this coverage been kept afloat for so long because the child is white and photogenic, and has articulate, resourceful parents? Of course, the news value of the story was also enhanced by context - everyone's worst nightmare, a child snatched from an apparently secure apartment in an upmarket holiday resort. But the sad truth is that if a black child had been snatched from a sink estate in Liverpool or Glasgow, the chances are you would not know their name."
Gerry, who had encouraged media coverage, criticised De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf
De Telegraaf is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper, with a daily circulation of approximately . De Telegraaf is based in Amsterdam...
on 14 June for publishing a letter claiming to know the location of Madeleine's body, calling it "an irresponsible piece of journalism" and "insensitive and cruel". Portuguese police searched the site but found no trace of Madeleine. At the Edinburgh International Television Festival
Edinburgh International Television Festival
The Edinburgh International Television Festival, founded in 1976, is held annually over the British August bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre....
on 25 August, Gerry complained about the amount of media attention, on the disappearance, that he claimed was 10 times what he had expected. He also criticised wild speculation being erroneously reported as fact.
There was criticism by the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
of the stories run in the Portuguese media. In an article on 28 August that summarised the speculation, the Daily Express accused the local media of "a vile whispering campaign, which has led to them [the McCanns] suffering a daily torrent of smears" and described the stories suggesting that the McCanns had involvement in their daughter's disappearance as "lies".
Journalist Martin Bell
Martin Bell
Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...
accused the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
of wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money in its coverage of the disappearance. In January 2008 Bell said "I’m calling it the death of news. It is the stupidification of the news agenda. It is pretty obvious television news has lost its way not just with the McCann case but that has been extreme."
A comparison was drawn, in early March 2008, between the publicity given to Madeleine with the much lower key publicity for the disappearance of Shannon Matthews
Disappearance of Shannon Matthews
Shannon Louise Matthews is a British girl who disappeared on the afternoon of 19 February 2008 in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England. The search for her became a major missing person police operation which was compared to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. She was found on 14 March 2008 at a...
. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
explained this by stating that "Overarching everything is social class" but they added that Shannon going missing in the UK made a difference. The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
took the same line saying "Kate and Gerry McCann had a lot: they were a couple of nice middle-class doctors on holiday in an upmarket resort" "Karen Matthews is not as elegant, nor as eloquent".
In his book Spoilt Rotten
Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality
Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality is a book by the British writer and retired doctor and psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple, originally published in 2010. Polemical in nature, the book contends that sentimentality has become culturally entrenched in British society, with harmful...
Theodore Dalrymple analyses critically the media attention and reaction to the disappearance, and specifically how certain elements in the media interpreted the lack of emotion displayed by the girl's parents as evidence of guilt.
Objectivity of the coverage
In an interview published on 1 July Martin BruntMartin Brunt
Martin Edward Brunt is crime correspondent for Sky News who joined the channel for its launch in 1989.-Education:...
, a Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
journalist who had covered the case extensively, conceded that the media's handling of the Madeleine McCann disappearance had been flawed. "It's the view of a few of us that when we look back over the first two or three weeks of the coverage we were in some ways over-sympathetic. We kind of adopted the tone and the language that the family did. I think we perhaps lost our objectivity a bit, we became a bit too subjective about the story."
The British media has been criticised for being heavily critical of the Portuguese police and legal system. The Guardian noted that the British media compared the Portuguese procedures with British procedures unfavourably and unfairly.
Likewise, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
published an editorial titled "Exactly how guilty are the Portuguese police?" and stated that there had been a rush to judge the Portuguese authorities.
Matthew Parris, writing for The Times in August, chastised the British and Portuguese media for what he described as "assassination-by-innuendo" of suspect Robert Murat, who those involved closely in the case believed was innocent. "For the rest of the world, however, glancing in passing at headlines and skimming news reports over its coffee, the name Murat is now synonymous with 'creepy oddball and obvious suspect'," Parris wrote. He concluded, "The whole disgusting business, the whole media-driven infatuation with this little girl and her parents, the whole sick, morbid, sentimental campaign of news generation and news manipulation, has been a disgrace to the British media."
Peter Horrocks
Peter Horrocks
Peter John Gibson Horrocks is Director of BBC World Service. He was educated at the independent King's College School in Wimbledon and at Christ's College, Cambridge....
, the head of BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV News, denied claims in September 2007 that the BBC was biased in favour of the McCanns. Some viewers had suggested that the McCanns had been treated in an overly positive light because they were white, middle class doctors. Then Horrocks criticised rival broadcasters
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
, saying "I know that many other TV and radio networks have been absolutely extraordinary, always talking about it in terms of sympathy and their [McCanns] feelings." Writing in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, also in September, Marcel Berlins
Marcel Berlins
Marcel Berlins is a lawyer, legal commentator, broadcaster, and columnist. He writes for British newspapers The Guardian and The Times, presented BBC Radio 4's legal programme Law in Action for 15 years and is currently a Visiting Professor at City University London in the department.He was born...
said that the investigation had generated a wave of negative comments in the UK media towards Portuguese society, and the authorities investigating the case, as the result of ignorance of the Portuguese legal system. Berlins called it "a touch of arrogant xenophobia".
Of the publicity
In early July 2007, parents criticised a cinema advertisementAdvertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
about the disappearance of Madeleine which showed a still picture of the girl with the statement that she had been "snatched" from her room. The advertisement was being screened across Britain before the children’s film Shrek the Third
Shrek the Third
Shrek the Third is a 2007 American animated film, and the third film in the Shrek series. It was produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg for DreamWorks Animation, and is distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was released in U.S. theaters on May 18, 2007...
, and parents were complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...
that it might scare young children and that it detracted from parents' ability to decide how much to tell their children. Following the protests, the advertisements were quickly withdrawn. Subsequently, however, the advertisement, which had received a British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
to be aired in U-certificate films, was cleared by the Advertising Standards Authority.
A plan to include bookmark
Bookmark
A bookmark is used to keep one's place in a printed work. It can also refer to:* Bookmark , a pointer in an Internet Web browser* a marker of one's place in an electronic document...
s bearing Madeleine's image in copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was shelved. After reflection, the publishers
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
decided it would not be responsible to expose younger readers to the story of Madeleine's disappearance.
Whilst the public response has largely been in support of the Find Maddie campaign, there have been instances where it has been criticised for drawing attention away from other missing children. Mark Lawson, writing in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
on 26 October, criticised the McCanns for employing their own spin doctor
Spin (public relations)
In public relations, spin is a form of propaganda, achieved through providing an interpretation of an event or campaign to persuade public opinion in favor or against a certain organization or public figure...
, describing their use of what he termed "political methods" as a "terrible error".
Carlos Anjos, president of the Association of Criminal Investigation Staff, criticised the McCanns, on 6 November, for creating a "monster of information" that hindered the investigation. He also stated that they should not have publicised the coloboma
Coloboma
A coloboma is a hole in one of the structures of the eye, such as the iris, retina, choroid or optic disc...
in her right eye which he claimed put the life of the girl at risk. This was echoed by Fernando José Pinto Monteiro, the Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
, who said that, if she had been abducted, the worldwide campaign would have turned Madeleine into a liability and that it was likely that her abductor had already killed her.
Rewards
Rewards offered totalled over £2.6 million including:- £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
1,500,000 (€EuroThe euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
2,200,000) including £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
250,000 by the News of the WorldNews of the WorldThe News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
250,000 by Sir Philip Green, £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
50,000 by Simon CowellSimon CowellSimon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
and £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
25,000 by Coleen McLoughlinColeen McLoughlinColeen Mary Rooney is best known for being the wife of Manchester United and England football star Wayne Rooney...
. Other contributors include Sir Richard Branson, JK Rowling, and Bill KenwrightBill KenwrightBill Kenwright CBE is a leading West End theatre producer and film producer.He is also the Chairman of Everton Football Club, an English professional football club from the city of Liverpool....
. - £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
1,000,000 (€1,470,000) by British businessman Stephen Winyard. - £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
100,000 (€147,000) by a colleague of Kate McCann. - €EuroThe euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
15,000 (£10,250) by Portuguese newspaper RecordRecord (newspaper)Record is a Portuguese sports newspaper, published in Lisbon. Although it covers most sports, football is the focal point of it, and almost always is the only sport referred to on the cover....
. - £Pound sterlingThe pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
10,000 (€14,700) by The SunThe Sun (newspaper)The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
.