Madeleine McCann: The Evening Standard Donates, Simon MacMillan And Gerry’s Hope
MADDIE WATCH – Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
THE SUN: “Maddie hunt trip gives Gerry hope”
GERRY McCann returned home yesterday after “positive” talks in Portugal on the hunt for missing daughter Madeleine.
Any facts?
Mr McCann is”40”.
EVENING STANDARD: “Kate and Gerry McCann”
As readers will recall, since Madeleine McCann’s abduction in May 2007, The Evening Standard has covered the story extensively and reported developments in the police investigation and search for Madeleine.
Well, yes, the Standard and every other news organ…
During the last few months of 2007 we, along with much of the media, published a number of articles which may have been understood to suggest that Kate and Gerry McCann may have been involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.
May have been understood? Could the paper be less specific?
We regret this and wish to make clear, for the avoidance of any doubt, that we fully accept that there is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Kate and Gerry were involved in the disappearance of their daughter.
Good that the Standard accepts that with no proof and no evidence of any crime having been committed, the missing girl’s parents are not guilty of hamring their own daughter. How’s that for, er, standards?
We continue to support Kate and Gerry in their search for Madeleine. There is no evidence that Madeleine has come to any harm and clearly there are people out there who know where she is.
“Continue to support”? But didn’t the Standard write things that “may have been understood” to be less than supporting?
Therefore we are today calling on Evening Standard readers to redouble their efforts to find Madeleine. We have now made a very substantial donation to assist with the search and are continuing to run adverts in the foreign editions of our sister paper, the Daily Mail, asking for information which might lead to Madeleine being found.
A donation. And an apology. What happened, then, to bring about such largesse?
We wish Kate and Gerry all the best and will continue to work with them to help find their daughter.
“Continue…”
Just yesterday the Mail, the Standard’s sister organ, told readers:
Mr McCann said he was unaware of how much money remained in the Find Madeleine Fund but admitted his family had “scarce resources and did not want to waste them”.
Waste them on… lawyers?
As the Mail said of the Daily Express’s case with the McCanns and subsequent “donation“:
Media lawyer Paul Gilbert, from the firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said: “Clearly the Express’s lawyers felt this was a case they should settle without a high-profile trial and as a result have saved considerable costs.
“It certainly is a warning sign to newspapers in the future – if they’re going to speculate, they’ve got to be very careful about what they speculate about.”
THE SCOTSMAN: “Madeleine expert joins Uist search”
AN EXPERT who reviewed the hunt for Madeleine McCann has been called in to try to help solve the mystery of the Merchant Navy cadet who disappeared on South Uist early on Boxing Day.
The failed search for Madeleine McCann is now a career defining moment for many, and no barrier to future employment.
As the search for Simon MacMillan, 21, goes on, a new team of police dogs from the mainland was sent to the Hebridean island yesterday. Police have also drafted in Mark Harrison, the national search adviser to the National Policing Improvement Agency, who was brought in to the search for Madeleine after police drew a blank.
And after Mr Harrison drew a blank…
Madeleine McCann is missing, and after months of speculation and innuendo, she remains missing…
Posted: 15th, January 2009 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comments (28) | TrackBack | Permalink
