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A collection of interesting general articles about aspects of the case that don't fit into any other pages
of the site
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So what is a parent to do?, 12 May 2007
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Fiona Phillips
12/05/2007
TWO mums confided to me this week that their children
had "incidents" on holiday after being left in kids' clubs.
I won't go into the cases for privacy reasons, but both involved childcare workers acting in an inappropriate
way. It has affected family holidays and both mums blame themselves for leaving their children with strangers.
So to all the smug, judgmental parents who have questioned why Kate and Gerry McCann did not make use of the
Mark Warner resort creche facilities, or employ babysitters for little Madeleine and her brother and sister while they ate
in a restaurant just yards away - it could have happened to any of you.
I have no doubt that Mark Warner staff are perfectly professional, but as parents we do what we think is right
for our children. And if the McCanns thought it was better to leave theirs sleeping in an apartment in a holiday resort chosen
for its child-friendliness rather than placing a stranger in the same room as their precious toddlers, who's to say they're
wrong?
Kate's mum Susan says: "You make a decision and think it's OK. This time it wasn't and Kate and Gerry must
live with that."
The fact is, on holiday, away from the stresses and strains of daily life, and especially in a resort renowned
for family holidays, we'd all be lulled into a sense that nothing can harm us.
We do things we might not do at home - there's no way the McCanns would have left their tots sleeping in their
bedrooms while they went to the local restaurant back in Leicestershire.
We often left ours sleeping upstairs in a hotel room while we dined downstairs until one night, when they
were two and five, we were told they were running up and down the landing screaming and calling for Mummy.
I have never felt so wretched - seeing two tear-stained faces looking questioningly at me as if to say "Why
did you leave us?" is an image that has stayed with me.
Now we take them with us or leave them with babysitters - babysitters who are sometimes male, often complete
strangers whose credentials we don't check.
What are we to do? Not go out on our own? Not go on holiday? Or trust that our faith in human kindness will
prevail? In the end that's all we can do.
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The British media does not do responsibility. It does stories, 18 May 2007
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The British media does not do responsibility. It does stories Guardian
The
frenzied reporting of the missing McCann child serves neither the interests of the family nor the cause of justice
Simon Jenkins
Friday May 18 2007
The media coverage of the missing McCann child has
largely escaped censure. This is because it concerns an ongoing tragedy and because the grief of those directly involved is
so real. Neither justifies freedom from comment. The coverage has been absurdly over the top and cannot have served the interests
of the family, or the eventual cause of justice.
I was astonished to see the BBC news department sending its star presenter, Huw Edwards, to southern Portugal
to handle what was essentially a single thread story with at least two other onscreen reporters in place. The corporation
must be stiff with under-employed staff. Presumably as a result of this decision, the McCanns regularly led the 6 o'clock
news, ahead of Gordon Brown's leadership bid - even when there was nothing new to report from the Algarve.
In this voracious feeding frenzy the media presence in Portimao was reduced to extremes of invention to justify
the prominence the story was getting back home. We learned of false sightings, car chases, child traffickers, barren women,
beach paedophiles and dark dungeons. A "suspect" was enveloped in private detective work way beyond any consideration for
natural justice. The sympathy a reader or viewer was bound to feel for the McCanns was overwhelmed in an exploitative swarm.
Star footballers were signed up, as were Hell's Angels, MPs wearing yellow ribbons and ministers meeting deputations. It was
as if a missing child were this year's Make Poverty History campaign.
Madeleine has become Maddy, an angel face in the clutches of a monster. The reasonable attempts of the McCanns
to avoid publicity and be seen to cooperate with the much-battered Portuguese police were as broken sticks in a tornado of
coverage. No aspect of the case was left intact by invading armies of counsellors, paediatricians, psychologists, criminologists
and trauma consultants. "Every parent's nightmare" became the nation's nightmare. Families closed their doors to the world,
hugged their children close and cursed Portugal.
To suggest that this might not be a good way of finding a missing child is clearly spitting in the wind. It
is possible that publicity in the McCann case might have induced witnesses to come forward in the immediate aftermath of the
girl's disappearance. It is equally possible that media hysteria could drive a cornered criminal to desperate measures to
cover his or her tracks. Is it worth the risk?
There were 798 child abductions in Britain in the last period for which figures are available (2003-4), of
which most were intra-family but 68 were "by strangers". Of these, a majority were quickly and quietly resolved, by information
being available and acted on before the captor realised. Twenty-five of them took longer, in addition to dozens from preceding
years. Since the disappearance of Madeleine on May 3, another 450 young people have gone missing in Britain. While many are
teenagers, none has received anything like the attention given to the McCanns.
So what made this case so special as to merit the trans-shipment of Fleet Street's finest and the BBC's chief
news-reader? The answer is that a "big news story" is not a systematic concept. It does not emerge onto the page according
to some calculus of merit, as satirically suggested by Michael Frayn in his novel, Towards the End of Morning. It does not
claim its place on the front page via a table stipulating five dead Englishmen (or one Londoner), 50 dead Europeans and 1,000
dead Chinese.
To acquire front page status a story must compete with dozens of similar human interest stories on a particular
day, boosted by happenings over the light news period such as a bank holiday. Hence the phenomenon that alsatians only attack
children at Easter and there is a "road carnage horror" every Christmas, though statistics on both are constant through the
year. The story should relate the ordinary lives of readers, as did the Soham murders, but not the deaths of the Morecambe
Bay Chinese cockle pickers. It must contain tears, suspense and mystery.
Such features are not cynical or strange. A newspaper story strives to attain the quality of a novel, if only
because it knows that readers like novels, as television viewers like soap operas. The human imagination is attuned to narratives
that have beginnings, middles and ends, preferably ends that carry some moral message. Under this pressure what is extraordinary
is not that newspapers sometimes make things up (and get them wrong) but that they make so little up.
The McCann story ticked all these boxes. It was not another runaway teenager or the death abroad of another
"promising gap-year student". It was a heartbreaking and open-ended mystery. Any parent could relate to it. Any reader could,
by expressing sympathy and showing vigilance, participate in relieving pain and possibly solving the case. This might involve
intrusion into private grief and blatant xenophobia, but that is hardly a media novelty. Britons travelling abroad seem to
feel entitled to the same consideration by the authorities as they would get at home, and journalists feed that unreasonable
expectation.
I have found the coverage of the McCann story prurient and tedious beyond belief. That the BBC should regard
it as more important than Brown's ascension to national leadership crumbles my faith in that great organisation. Tabloid values
have come to British public service broadcasting with a vengeance and without even the commercial pressure of the private
sector. It is like the daily attention given to the kidnapping of the BBC's brave Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, when
dozens of other kidnappings, including of journalists, go unreported.
In this spirit I must constantly remind myself that the British media does not do responsibility. It does
stories. And stories tell better when they are about individuals, not collectives. The media is unconcerned with what people
like me find decorous or important. It kicks down doors and exposes the hidden corners of the human condition. It fights competition,
plays dirty and disobeys the rules. There is nothing it finds too vulgar or too prurient for its wandering, penetrating lens.
Journalists may have cooked the McCann story to a burnt crisp. But they cook many other stories that way and
I say, thank goodness. There are plenty in power who feel too much was written and said on the Royal Navy hostages, on cash-for-honours,
on BAE sleaze and on David Kelly. Tough luck on them.
Damilola Taylor was just one among many youngsters whose lives are ruined or lost on Britain's sink housing
estates, conditions highlighted by the extraordinary publicity attached to his case. Many brave people are killed for trying
to impose order on Britain's streets, but it was the teacher, Philip Lawrence, who captured the public's imagination. Sometimes
there is no better way to alert the nation to street violence, racism or even the dangers faced by families abroad than through
the tragedy visited on an individual victim.
The British press plays hard cop to the soft cop of the British constitution. It goes where politics dares
not tread, certainly the present pusillanimous parliament that still cannot find a way of holding the government to account
for Iraq, as congress is finally doing in America. The press does not operate with any sense of proportion, judgment or self-restraint
because it is selling stories, not running the country. The unshackled and irresponsible press sometimes gets it wrong. But
I still prefer it, warts and all, to a shackled and responsible one.
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The hunt for information, 09 August 2007 |
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| Mark Williams-Thomas |
Amid all the speculation,
it is hard to know what to believe about Madeleine McCann's disappearance - and Portuguese secrecy laws don't help matters.
August 09, 2007 12:00PM
Mark Williams-Thomas
There is so much speculation around it is difficult to know what can and can't be believed. Was Madeline McCann abducted
or did she die in her bedroom? Was it a tragic accident or a deliberate act? Do Gerry and Kate McCann or one of the family friends know more that they are telling?
What is clear is that there is more speculation now than ever, after a three-way war has broken out between the British and Portuguese media and the Portuguese police, with
Gerry and Kate at the centre of it.
But why has such a war started? One answer is because of the Portuguese legal system and the information vacuum from
the police, with details of the investigation remaining unknown because of strict Portuguese laws designed to keep police
work secret. The secrecy law that prevents information being shared applies not only to police, but to anyone involved in
the investigation.
Under the law of judicial secrecy anyone who releases details of a police investigation while it is still under way could
face criminal procedures. In practice, the law has prevented the police from making appeals, or confirming or denying speculation
surrounding Madeleine's disappearance. It also prevents Gerry and Kate from speaking out.
For me, the secrecy law presents serious concerns about the Portuguese police's ability to undertake such a complex inquiry.
It is this specific law that creates the problem, providing no opportunity to appeal for information from the public, to release
a description of what Madeleine was wearing on the night she disappeared, and saying what time she disappeared, for example.
In relation to the secrecy law I have sympathy for the Portuguese police, as this is what they have to work within - but it
needs changing urgently.
This week we have seen a reinvigorated investigation, which for many weeks has limped along, apparently rudderless, lacking
focus and direction. On Saturday, as a result of a review by British detectives, we saw Robert Murat's house re-searched, presumably looking for evidence - evidence that was potentially never secured when the police first
searched the address. The house and grounds and vehicles were all searched in less than eight hours. If Robert Murat did have
evidence at his address was it really likely to be there 11 weeks after the first search?
We also saw Mrs Murat driving her vehicle to the police station in order for them to search it. Why? If the vehicle contained
potential evidence the police should have gone and seized it.
Then the most amazing evidence emerged on Monday that blood has been found in the bedroom that Madeleine was sleeping in. Thirteen weeks after Madeleine disappeared and after the apartment had been
thoroughly forensically examined (or so we are told), cleaned and re-let - the police find an area of blood that is apparently
invisible to the naked eye. This evidence could be vital, although as of yet we do not know if it belongs to Madeleine and
are probably unlikely to know this for another week at the earliest.
Whoever the blood belongs to, why was it missed in the initial forensic examination? What else have the police missed
or failed to investigate thoroughly?
With new focus to the police inquiry I would expect to see further development over the forthcoming days - in the build
up to the 100-day mark. I also anticipate that there will be more pressure on Gerry and Kate McCann by the Portuguese media, more speculation and
more rumours. Whatever the situation, the Portuguese police need to act now, to put a stop to the leaks and enable the investigation
to be focused on one thing: finding Madeline.
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What the papers say..., 29 August 2007 |
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| Michael White |
The British press has
been scathing about the Portuguese media's treatment of the McCanns, but Fleet Street's own track record isn't exactly glowing.
August 29, 2007 11:34AM
Michael White
You may not have spotted it, but some of today's newspapers report that Gerry McCann, father of missing Madeleine, " stormed" out of a Spanish television studio after being persistently asked for detailed answers on the case which Portuguese law
prevents him from divulging.
Kate McCann stayed on the set and explained "it's the pressure" and her husband came back and apologised after a five-minute
break. Sounds fair enough to me. But what is striking - yet again - is the way the papers report this sort of incident as
if it's nothing to do with them.
Before he walked Dr McCann had been asked to confirm that the couple had been the "last people to see Madeleine alive".
Something may have been lost in translation here, but that sounds like a pretty leading question given the way speculation
has developed on the case.
"Everything we read in the press is inaccurate or untrue. We would like to talk, but we cannot talk," Mrs McCann - also
a medic - told the Telecinco channel during the interview.
Well, yes, that must be true of a lot of the acreage of "Maddy" coverage during the McCanns' 120-day ordeal. Rightly
or wrongly, certainly understandably, they have tried to ride the media tiger, hoping that relentless publicity might help
rescue their little girl.
The policy seems to have failed, as was probably the case from the start. You can see why they tried, even visiting the Pope, a funny sort of gesture given the papacy's record on child protection. But it appeared to give the McCanns some solace in
their misery.
But back to the papers. Last week the Daily Express devoted a full page to the deplorable allegations made in the Portuguese
media. They range from wife-swapping holidays in Praia da Luz, to drunkenness, inattention, doped kids and heavy hints that,
perhaps, the McCanns or their friends might in some way be responsible for Madeleine's disappearance and presumed death. Oh
yes, and Gerry McCann wasn't her real father anyway, but doctored the birth certificate as doctors can.
I suppose it's a comfort to be reminded that, contrary to some high-minded liberal thought, ours isn't a uniquely dreadful
media. When Paris Match airbrushed Sarko's flabby tummy in the latest Action President shots in a canoe the other day (the
proprietor is a chum) most of us were on the side of the flab. Ditto ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's dyed hair which got
a German news agency into trouble. I've seen it up close and it looked dyed to me. So what?
But the idea that poor Dr McCann is stressed out solely because of the nasty things those dreadful Portuguese papers
have been saying seems a bit rich. Fleet St hasn't exactly confined its reporting, analysis and comment to the rigorous rules
imposed by Portuguese law.
In the process it has been pretty rude about the local coppers as well as the local media, neither of which had much
previous experience of this kind of kidnap or the Fleet St posse in action. It's quite a sight.
But self-detachment is standard practice for newspapers in a crisis; the tabloids are worse, but not too much worse.
In everything from Wayne Rooney's love life (deplorable conduct by Merseyside police in cahoots with the tabs there) to Tony
Blair's loans-for-no-peerages affair, it's nothing to do with us, guv'nor. We just happened to be in the vicinity. We'll have
a lot more of this before the weekend's latest Diana Fest is over. At least the McCanns' sorrow has spared her memory a few
tacky front-page headlines in the Express.
The latest example is Formula 1's Lewis Hamilton, the best thing that's happened to Britain's standing in a world sport
for some time. Build 'em up, knock 'em down, woe betide that young man if he doesn't win the title this season (at his first
attempt).
At the weekend he said he might be moving to Switzerland to shake off media hassle and snappers jumping out from behind
every litter bin. He can handle the cars, it's the coverage he can't manage, so he said. We're entitled to take that with
a pinch of salt. Perhaps tax status is part of the calculation, perhaps he'll get used to the hype. But don't bank on it.
Remember, Brazilian football coach, Phil Scolari, used the same justification to turn down the England job when Sven finally
resigned. It would have meant moving from Portugal. And that was before the McCann story brought the pack to Praia da Luz.
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Middle Class Hypocrisy, 09
September 2007
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Award-winning Blog, running since 2004 by stand-up comic
and best-selling author Janey Godley.
Janey Godley
09/11/2007
The latest news in the Team McCann
story is gripping the UK.
You will probably know the story about Madeleine McCann.
Madeleine went missing from her holiday
flat in Portugal on May 3rd when her parents left her and her two younger siblings alone as they had a dinner date across
at the tapas restaurant 50 yards from their bedroom.
Madeleine has never been found since
that fateful night.
The parents Gerry and Kate have had
an audience with the Pope, they had millions of pounds in a fund to help find her, they have had major TV and media stars
pledge support to their cause, they had MP's in the UK come out wearing yellow ribbons to remind people of the missing child.
Madeleine's father even spoke about
child safety at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, they have flown around the world in private planes, and been
courted by the press from all over the world.
Yet no one asked them why they saw
fit to leave three kids under four alone in an apartment in a foreign country with no baby sitter or carer to keep a watchful
eye on them.
Who leaves small babies alone in
a flat? No one I know.
They could just as easily choke on
their vomit if they were sick, fall out of bed, scream from a nightmare and wake up hysterical and possibly be sick (again),
wet the bed and want Mummy...a host of things that can happen when small children are left alone...never mind intruders trying
to snatch them.
I don't know anyone in my family
who left their kids alone in a flat and walked off to have dinner in another part of the street and I have alcoholics and
drug addicts in my family. The people I am talking about may not be the best parents in the world but they don't leave their
kids alone and none of the kids have ever gone missing.
The UK charity the RSPCC advise parents
that it's illegal to leave kids under ten years old alone in a house and parents can be prosecuted for negligence if this
occurs.
The McCann's left twins aged two
and toddler aged three alone in an unfamiliar room in a foreign country.
The McCann's are white middle class
doctors, from a professional background in the UK, so no one has challenged them on their decision to leave three toddlers
under four years old alone to fend for themselves as they ate tapas with friends.
It's a class issue through and through.
Imagine the horror of reading about
some overweight, flip flop wearing single mum from Essex who left her three babies alone in Butlin's as she went off to eat
a burger 50 yards from the chalet and one child went missing. Pictures of the tubby woman in her white shell suit and cheap
jewellery would be splattered over every tabloid that would scream
"I left my babies to get a burger
and my child is missing".
We would hang the worthless woman
for sheer negligence.
Her crying fat face on TV begging
people to help find her child would be met with derision and pain for the poor kid.
The other babies would immediately
be shipped off to a foster home whilst the burger scoffing bitch had to account for her bad parenting skills to outraged authorities.
There would be no outpouring of pain,
or candles lit or locals supporting the woman as she held a teddy bear in grief for her missing baby.
Pop stars would not be flocking to
lend supportive and heart wrenching songs to the website of the child, politicians would shun her suggestion of a meeting,
football teams would give no minutes silence for the missing child's remembrance.
There would be no free flights or
television chats and millionaire celebs would not offer a penny to a fund.
The Pope would have condemned her
as an unfit parent and David Beckham would never have given her two minutes of his precious money charged time.
The fat burger muncher from the spam
sucking society would have to live the rest of her life in penance for deciding to eat alone and not caring for her kids properly.
She will get what she deserves.
Do you honestly think the world famous
author J.K Rowling would pledge money to a clumsy stupid fat woman who left her kids alone to go eat from a burger van 50
yards from a holiday flat whilst one of her kids got abducted?
Maybe I am wrong and society would
get behind this poor uneducated woman, but it's an odd state of affairs when questions were raised in Parliament when the
infamously and achingly common Jade Goody and Danielle Lloyd made racist comments on a reality TV show in the UK, yet no questions
were raised when a nice middle class couple through blatant neglect and misjudgement managed to lose a child as she was left
alone in a holiday flat.
The images of the slummy Jade Goody
dominated the headlines for weeks, many media giants predicted her fall from grace and sure enough her career was over. Yet
the McCann's will go home to be doctors. What does this say about us a society?
Still the image of the slim blonde
pretty mummy McCann and well dressed daddy McCann seem poignant and acceptable.
They only went off to eat tapas,
they are doctors and come from a clean middle class house and wear nice coordinated clothes, their hair is shiny and they
are devout Catholics.
How can they be judged badly?
They must be good people underneath.
They just wanted dinner
and some local wine with friends, leaving their kids alone isn't really a bad thing is it?
We have all done it ourselves
haven't we? When on holiday after working hard all year, mummy and daddy deserve a little ‘me' time don't they?
NO! They can pay for the onsite baby
sitting service more than the burger eater.
They could easily have taken shifts on eating dinner the way millions of parents
do every where when on holiday and babies need their bed time.
Now the gears have shifted.
The parents of Madeleine McCann have
been named as suspects in her disappearance.
So much has been said about the alleged
evidence gathered by the Portuguese police, apparently Madeleine's DNA has been found in the boot of the car that the McCann's
hired six weeks after Madeleine's disappearance.
Team McCann is screaming that evidence
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