Daily Mail proprietor felt 'concern' at Madeleine McCann coverage

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/12/daily-mail-madeleine-mccann-viscount-rothermere?CMP=twt_fd


Daily Mail proprietor felt 'concern' at Madeleine McCann coverage
Viscount Rothermere says he is 'deeply sympathetic' to McCanns but that he stood by editor Paul Dacre

Viscount Rothermere, the controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail, said he had a "personal concern" about his title's coverage of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007 as he gave evidence to parliament on Monday.

In a rare public appearance, Rothermere told a parliamentary committee on privacy and injunctions that he was "very deeply sympathetic" to Kate and Gerry McCann but that he stood by Paul Dacre, the Daily Mail editor-in-chief, over the title's coverage of the couple's search for their daughter.

Asked by Labour MP Paul Farrelly if the Daily Mail's coverage of the McCann family gave him cause for concern, Rothermere said: "My paper writes about many things that give me personal cause for concern but I feel it's my duty to allow editors the job to edit.

"If I picked up the phone every single time I disagreed with an article then I would make their job a lot harder to do. I rely on the processes within the organisation and their obeyance of them in order to run a professional outfit."

Asked again whether he had any concerns before the McCanns sued, Rothermere said: "I am very deeply sympathetic to everything the McCanns have gone through."

Pressed by Farrelly, Rothermere admitted: "I had personal concerns, yes. I think what the McCanns went through was very difficult for them but I did not bring up the issue with Paul Dacre, if that answers your question."

The McCanns told the Leveson inquiry into press standards three weeks ago how they were subject to a string of "disgusting" and "offensive" stories after their daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal four years ago.

Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail and formerly of the Evening Standard, made a substantial donation to the McCanns in 2008 after they sued for libel. The Daily Mail agreed to carry free adverts on behalf of the Find Madeleine campaign but refused to apologise, according to Gerry McCann. The Evening Standard agreed to publish an apology.

Rothermere, who rarely makes public appearances on behalf of the company, added that it was important for proprietors to "fiercely protect" editors of their newspapers as long as there had been "no gross dereliction" of duty. "I do not believe and the board does not believe that any of the instances you've brought up today qualify under that," he added.

Earlier, Farrelly compared Rothermere to James Murdoch, referring to the proprietor's "dispassionate replies" when pressed on standards. "I do care about standards. Standards are important," Rothermere said. "I think that your comparison to News International is unfair."

If the paper paid out then they knew they were in the wrong....end of story.

The Mail did some excellent exposes, Tony.

Lies, beatings, secret trials: the dark side of police handling Madeleine case

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-482007/Lies-beatings-secret-trials-dark-police-handling-Madeleine-case.html#ixzz1gMVaTcY8

But I am afraid they, too, were suckered in by rubbish from, Sources in the PJ....

When is the Ex N.O.W. giving evidence on the diary?

crazytony wrote:When is the Ex N.O.W. giving evidence on the diary?

I think it is on Thursday Tony. Should be very interesting!

Thursday morning, Tony.

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Witness-List-wc-12-12-11.pdf

Oh my, if this is correct, then all this uproar has come about because of a pretty major blunder by the Guardian:



NOTW May Not Have Erased Dowler's Voicemail

There is a new twist in the phone hacking scandal after it was revealed that the News of the World may not have deleted Milly Dowler's messages after all.

The voicemail's were erased several days after the teenager went missing - and gave her parents hope that their daughter was still alive.
Now it appears that the messages were probably deleted automatically by the phone system, 72 hours after they were listened to.
The NOTW was closed down and all the staff laid off after it was discovered journalists from the paper had hacked Milly's phone.
But it was the idea that heartless eavesdroppers from the Sunday tabloid had purposely removed messages from the handset, giving Milly's mother and father something to cling to, which really revulsed the public and hastend the paper's demise.
The Leveson Inquiry into press standards heard on Monday that a Metropolitan Police investigation revealed the voice messages were "unlikely" deliberately deleted, and that Milly's phone had a 72-hour automatic message deletion device installed.
Lord Justice Brian Leveson said the latest revelation was of "significance" especially "bearing in mind the importance of the original announcement in the context of the setting up of this inquiry".
SKY DEBATE OVER NEW MILLY HACK RELEVATION

Speaking on Sky News, Guardian journalist Nick Davies, who co-wrote the original story alleging NOTW reporters hacked into Milly's phone, defended the article.
He said the story was about the wider issue of hacking into the girl's voicemails as opposed to the actual deleting of the messages.
"I agree that the deletion was an important element. It did have an emotional impact. But it wasn't the whole story and if you put it in the context that the police were all over the NOTW for six months by now, and that they had thrown in their hand on all those civil actions," he said.

"It's dillusional to try to pretend that the new evidence on this one element of one story would have changed the outcome - I'm afraid that's mischief making."
Following the latest revelation, several former NOTW staff have used micro-blogging site Twitter to demand an apology.
Hayley Barlow tweeted: "Former #NotW staff demand Guardian apology over false claims paper deleted Milly Dowler's voicemails leading to closure and 300 jobs losses."

More at:

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16128342

Many thanks Maggs and Bonny.

I saw this link on Regrets:

http://www.newstatesman.com/law-and-reform/2008/10/madeleine-mccann-daily-british

It's well worth a read.

Well, I´m glad that he with Paul Dacre are "very deeply sympathetic" to the McCanns.

But I have to ask: why did they allowed " string of "disgusting" and "offensive" stories about the innocent couple, instead of being more helpful, with positive behaviours to assist in the search for this sweet child. It is good to see this child´s plight in the press, but with positive assistance to help find her, because to find this child is what really matters here.