PRESS REPORTS ON MCCANNS' TESTIMONY TO LEVESON INQUIRY

Just the front pages so far - stand by for mass outbreak of frothing, foaming and carpet-chewing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/23/leveson-inquiry-kate-gerry-mccann?newsfeed=true

Why Kate and Gerry McCann are no longer afraid of the British press


What kind of people would accuse them of 'selling' a daughter? Esther Addley hears the couple's shaming testimony

Esther Addley
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 November 2011 19.49 GMT
Article history



Kate and Gerry McCann appear before the Leveson inquiry. Photograph: Pool/Reuters

Some people are frightened of the British media. Sheryl Gascoigne, a woman who 15 years ago contracted a brief marriage to Britain's best-loved footballer until she tired of his drunken beatings and left him, confessed to the Leveson inquiry on Wednesday that she was "scared of the repercussions" even of appearing before it, and of the fury she might call down on her children by giving evidence about crawling on the carpet of her living room to avoid being photographed through the curtains.

Kate and Gerry McCann, on the other hand, do not appear to be afraid of the press. What, after all, is it going to do to them? Accuse them of killing their three-year-old daughter Madeleine and transporting her corpse in their hire car? They've done that already, many times over. Report that they were undergoing IVF to get a "new" child to "replace" Madeleine? Done that too.

Suggest they were taking part in orgies and swingers' parties? That they had kept Madeleine's body in their freezer after murdering her? That they had sold their daughter into slavery to pay off family debts? They've seen it all before. Each one of those allegations appeared in a British newspaper in the months after this ordinary couple from rural Leicestershire became the victims of the most terrible crime any parent can imagine, the kidnap of their child.

Among the sorry litany of grievances outlined by the McCanns on Wednesday was a complaint about the way images of them, often obtained by photographers leaping out to startle them, had been "distorted" to fit a desired description of them as "frail" or "fragile".

And so I won't describe them as fragile, though both spoke in low voices and Mrs McCann, in particular, appeared bruised by the experience. It seems inappropriate in any case, since having survived that kind of onslaught they are evidently made of formidable stuff – or perhaps they have simply found no alternative than to doggedly continue.

But after four and a half years of hunting, at times almost alone, for a lost little girl, taking savage blows to their reputations along the way, they seemed pale and pained, badly beaten up. After a verbatim transcript of Kate McCann's personal diary was reproduced in the News of the World in September 2008, she felt, she said, "like climbing into a hole and not coming out, because I just felt so worthless that we would be treated like that". (The paper's news editor, incidentally, had told the McCanns' representative earlier in the week that it would be publishing a "supportive" piece that weekend.)

Perhaps the most appalling aspect of the McCanns' testimony, in which they relived what has a good claim to be the British media's most ignoble and shaming episode of recent times, is that little of this is new. Millions read the articles in question; plenty, too (though considerably fewer) will have seen grovelling apologies by some of the papers that published them, admitting that there was and remains absolutely no evidence that the child's disappearance was anything other than a terrible crime, the kidnap by a stranger.

And yet, for all that was familiar, the McCanns have not given evidence to a court or inquiry before, so some of the details they had to share of their backroom dealings with the media were new, and as edifying as you might expect. This was the first occasion, for example, on which they have told how an "irate" Colin Myler, then editor of the News of the World, personally telephoned them to "berate" them for granting an interview to Hello! to publicise a child safety campaign. They found themselves apologising to Myler, and, "beaten into submission", agreeing to an interview with his paper.

Nor was it widely known that when the couple finally decided to sue the publishers of the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Daily Star, their behind-the-scenes efforts to avoid legal action having been met with such headlines as "Maddy 'sold' by hard-up McCanns", they were told by the group's lawyers that it would not apologise, but if they liked it would grant them an interview with OK! magazine. Express Newspapers eventually paid £550,000 to the Find Madeleine fund and published apologies. "They were on the front page," said Mr McCann. "We insisted."

The couple sat closely, shooting glances at each other from time to time. The sleeve of Mrs McCann's cardigan was rolled up, her husband's cuff pulled back as he frequently raised a glass of water to his mouth. Both were wearing on their right wrists the green and yellow cuffs they have sported since their daughter's disappearance, reflecting the colours used in Portugal and Britain to commemorate the missing. Remember Madeleine.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/285626/Our-heartache-by-the-McCanns

OUR HEARTACHE, BY THE MCCANNS

Thursday November 24,2011
By Padraic Flanagan

THE parents of Madeleine McCann have revealed how their lives were turned upside down by coverage of their daughter’s disappearance during a family holiday.
Kate and Gerry McCann spoke of their turmoil at the Royal Courts of Justice during a measured attack on the media industry.
As their lawyer described their treatment as a “national scandal”, cardiologist Gerry said there was “one simple reason” they were giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.
“We feel that a system has to be put in place to protect ordinary people from the damage that the media can cause by behaviour which falls far below what I would call acceptable,” he said.
The couple thought there was a “genuine want-to-help attitude from journalists” at the beginning.
But when asked if it was helpful the story was kept in the press for so long, he said it was not particularly helpful in 2007 and 2008.
“There was an incredible amount of confusion,” he said. “She was on the front page every day for a period.”

Mrs McCann added: “When a story is so negative, it’s not helpful.” Her husband said they quickly realised there was “speculation” in the reporting and he believed “elements” of the police inquiry were being leaked to Portugal’s press. These were picked up by Britain’s press who could not tell if these stories were true or not.
“It was exaggerated and often downright untruthful and often, I believe, on occasions, made up,” he said.
“More sinister elements” crept in, the first a Portuguese article which suggested a cover-up, “some sort of sinister agreement between us and our friends”.
Mr McCann said an “irate” News of the World editor Colin Myler once called them and “berated” them for not doing an interview because they had done an unpaid one with a magazine to promote a campaign for an alert system for missing children.


“He beat us into submission verbally and we agreed to do an interview the day after,” Mr McCann said. Kate McCann said finding out her private diary – believed taken by the Portuguese police – had been published in the News of the World had made her feel “totally violated”.
The inquiry heard about legal action the couple took against Express Newspapers after stories in 2007 and 2008. The Daily Express printed a front page apology to the McCanns in which it admitted it was at fault and paid the family £550,000 in libel damages.

I do hope that they are being translated for the Gonc Squad.

I'm not sure if there are many left in Team Gonc who can translate them, Lily. Apart from her failed attempt to raise interest in Gonc's latest literary flop, Morais seems to be AWOL, as usual.

The rats seem to be fleeing that particular sinking ship, and it will only get worse, following today's spectacular consignment of Gonc's 'thesis' to the rubbish bin.

And Lord Justice Leveson is on the trail of the Portuguese Diary Thief...

And Lord Justice Leveson is on the trail of the Portuguese Diary Thief...

And I bet that the thief didn't worry about being caught?

And he will, get the thief

crazytony wrote:And he will, get the thief

Oh yes, Tony. Good innit?

Finally, at last, The McCanns have been able to give evidence under Oath. And raised some very useful publicity for Madeleine. And in front of a Judge who is most definitely in a position to get some answers about at least one of the leaks from The PJ.

Who'd have thought that this would ever happen. I have so despaired at times.

PS. I wonder if the Morons will dare to Hate Spam Lord Levesons? I do hope so.

Tins of the stuff being opened as we speak.

Leverson will be able to dine on spam and bile stew for days to come. If he wants to. .

sans_souci wrote:Tins of the stuff being opened as we speak.

Leverson will be able to dine on spam and bile stew for days to come. If he wants to. .

Well, they might just discover that Lord Leveson is most definitely in a position to shut them up. Legally and Permanently.
If he can expose the Diary Thief then a few British Hate Spammers shouldn't be any problem whatsoever.

sans_souci wrote:Tins of the stuff being opened as we speak.

Leverson will be able to dine on spam and bile stew for days to come. If he wants to. .

I see the ghouls and haters are continuing to commit cyber-suicide; they are NOW abusing all those people who got dragged into #mccann because hater hydras like Ironside/Quadrille wrecked #leveson.

Anyone who expresses sympathy and support for the McCanns and Madeleine is being abused.

Fine; let them carry on destroying themselves.