Madeleine McCann: Suing Amaral, Mark Lawson’s Fact And Fiction, And Bloggers Beware
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
THE GUARDIAN: “The Panama Mystery - Mr and Mrs Canoe’s case fascinates but can’t match crime fiction’s satisfying motives and denouement”
Mark Lawson does so love a good ending to a work of fiction and fact. A super-fiction. Take care you don’t confuse the two.
In his piece Lawson name checks them all: John and Anne Darwin, Radovan Karadzic, Fred and Rose West, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, Ian Huntley, Harold Shipman and…
As the trial was coming to a close, I was at the Harrogate Crime-Writing Festival, and newspapers were reporting the latest developments in the Madeleine McCann case.
Bingo! Where were you?
One of the reasons for the huge popularity of crime fiction is that the genre explores, in a sanitised environment, the fear and prurient fascination we feel when faced with murders and abductions. Real-life criminality and fiction have become a loop, communicating with each other: several of the books discussed at Harrogate featured missing children; in two years, expect a slew of novels about husbands and wives who mysteriously disappear.
Can you tell the difference between fact and fiction? Now read on…
THE SUN: “McCanns to sue cop over book”.
DEVASTATED Kate and Gerry McCann are to launch a legal blitz in Portugal after the publication of a scandalous book about the disappearance of their daughter Maddie.
In The Truth Behind The Lie, ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral details ludicrous allegations about the couple and the pals they dined with when Maddie vanished in Portugal last year.
Who gets sued?
The McCanns plan to take action against Amaral, Portuguese newspapers which reprinted parts of the £10 book and bloggers who discussed it.
Anorak did not discuss the book’s merit. We did not reproduce a single quote from the book. But can bloggers who did be sued effectively? Many are men and women of straw. What can the outcome be? Best for bloggers, perhaps, to avoid the matter? Or get a crack moderation team – like Anorak. But what, then , of freedom of speech?
Says Amaral: “This book is not revenge, it is not persecution. We can discuss the case in court if they want.”
In the context of a libel case, they might well…
DAILY MAIL: “We failed, says Maddie police chief… but he refuses to apologise to her parents”
Says Amaral: “’There will be no apology, I was just doing my job.”
As a writer…?
DAILY TELEGRAPH: “Madeleine McCann case: Portuguese police admit failings
The police detective who led the search for Madeleine McCann has admitted that there were some failings in the investigation but refused to accept responsibility for not solving the case…
Several hundred people queued up to collect copies of “Maddie The truth of the Lie” and many congratulated Mr Amaral for his courage to speak out.
BELFAST TELEGRPAH: “McCann case detective’s book to get English translation”
Who will review it if it published in the UK?
THE HERALD: “Sympathy for McCanns must be tempered”
Letters to the editor:
How kind Colette Douglas Home is to Gerry and Kate McCann (Comment, July 22). She uses many column inches pouring scorn on the Portuguese police (perhaps justifiably, I don’t know), showering Gerry and Kate with sympathy (I, too, feel for them), but only makes passing reference to the action that, had it not happened, would have prevented this heartbreaking event from occurring in the first place.
This is clearly their “decision to leave her sleeping while they met friends for dinner”.
- Allistair Matheson, Selkirk.
Colette’s opinion - that Gerry McCann is handsome and Kate McCann beautiful - is irrelevant. The eye of the beholder? Colette states: “And they will always carry the burden of their decision to leave her sleeping while they met friends for dinner.” What kind of parents, in a foreign land, needlessly leave their child, not yet four years old, asleep without a child-minder and out of sound or sight, while they indulge themselves with their friends?
The McCanns deserve all the anguish they brought upon themselves through poor judgment, and not endless public sympathy. Madeleine is the victim. I hope and pray that she is unharmed and is being looked after in loving care, however wrongfully.
- Donald C Irving, Ayr.
And on it goes…
Posted: 25th, July 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (626) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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July 25th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Imagine if the editors were watching the blogs.
Imagine if they saw the blogs putting their fingers up and say go ahead and sue.
Maybe they can remember a time, when as news reporters they would have also
been putting their fingers up and telling the truth.
And maybe that is what is slowly happening.
All these threats to sue.
Who remembers the first one?
My recollection is that is was Sandra ? a beautiful Spanish journalist.
At that stage I still believed that Madeleine was alive and would be returned unharmed
Woven into the story line.
And you know what they never did sue her.
Wonder why?
It was after she questioned it and they spoke about suing her and then the same day there was some comment that the Sun was no longer going to be taking any negative comments that were hurtful and ludicrous. And I think that became editorial policy till very recently.
Very very recently.
Any bets on Sunday’s headlines?
A bookie could get rich.
Have been following the Sky comments on 3A’s.
I think the Mods and Admin are going to be the heroes.
Not the editors, not the journalist, the mods and admins.
They are letting this through.
Here’s to all the mods and admins on the forums whose
primary interest has been in truth for Madeleine.
Well done to all of you.
Courage in a pool of lumpy fear.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Abraham
A knee length busby and spats
July 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Abraham
Gloves
July 25th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Abraham
A mask
July 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Actually I think I’ve just worked it out.
Clue: When you go to the dentist, what does he put on?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Melanie Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Chenier/ Sam, your posts are following my thoughts.
melanie, just wading my way though this, it’s very hot/humid here right now and i think my brains stuck in first gear.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
No, Karen, Gerry is not in PDL today - as if!
Sam, I didn’t intend to mislead, I think now it is an interesting exercise to compare so called “wild unsubstantiated” leaks from the past, with the official position as we now understand it to be from the leaked report.
I’m trying to understand why both dogs signalled the car key, but nowhere else in the car (except Keela’s possible signal in the boot.)
Why didn’t Eddie react to anywhere else in the car?
He’s a cadaver dog, so that would suggest there hadn’t been a body in the car itself.
So why the key? Why did Keela signal the boot and not Eddie?
Also there is the tantalising paragraph: “The paper went on to claim that the person who hired the car the McCanns is also being investigated before speculating that the corpse scent on the key could have come from contimination with another item which had been in contact with a dead body.” There is a word missing - are they meaning the person who hired the car “before” or “to” the McCanns?
Who is this person?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Clarrie speak:
‘they will not hesitate from taking legal action against Amaral if any passage requires it.’
That’s weird. Surely you don’t hesitate from, you hesitate to…
July 25th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Any news over WHEN the mccanns will reiniciate the search for Madeleine?
4 days since their arguido status -which apparently prevented them to search- has been lifted.Why have they not started yet?
They will get around it after they”ve taken Amaral to court?
July 25th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Chenier/ Sam, your posts are following my thoughts.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Abraham Zapruder Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
abraham do you mean the reports of the time were pretty accurate after all ?
i wonder if the express regrets reaching a settlement out of court.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Thanks, Melanie.
Raises the interesting question of why the Mail hasn’t pulled the article following the McCanns libel fest earlier this year…
July 25th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Have I missed something or does the anguished priest never get a mention anymore?
July 25th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Karen Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
An excellent suspect on your part then.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Matt
I suspected Gerry wasn’t back in PDL.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Melanie Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
That mail article was from 2007
oh right. wish people would’nt do that. annoying.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Karen….
The article is dated Aug 2007.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Abraham Zapruder Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
The key
the mails not very accurate is it, it was mentioned in the leaked summary of the case files.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Hannasus
So sorry to hear you are so unwell….mccannitis,is it? ach!
Did you have portugal in mind?
You could have brought back tons of stuffed blue fish heads for the mccanns layers of lawyers,family,friends & all.
They say its excellent for brain cells
July 25th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
That mail article was from 2007
July 25th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Thank you for the Mail link; the article has some hilarious, though obviously unintentional moments. Compare and contrast:
‘The article - which is not attributed to anyone, not even unnamed police sources’
with the Mail article, which is apparently composed by an anonymous reporter relying on what s/he has acquired by the Sacred Book of Google.
So, Clarrie has threatened to sue blogs; will they be suing the Mail?
July 25th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Saul Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Well the cyber pipps have started pippıng just as well thıs keyboard was about to be launched ınto a very nıce swımming pool İ thought accents graves and cırcumflexes were the property of the French apparently they are small potatoes compared to a Turkısh keyboard
(İ stıll have no idea where the comma is)
what kind of keyboard do you have ? mine’s a german one but set up for usa language.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
hammasus
I hate to make you feel worse - but they’re probably real.
Kate’s taken over from Princess Di as a focus of National gibbering.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
afternoon all
July 25th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Cheryl Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
hi cheryl, this is interesting too,
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2005/01/08/587/89842
July 25th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Am going to go sailing this weekend and to prepare for the upcoming nausea I read the comments page on the Daily Mail.
I would be interested to know if there is some on line directory in the UK that we could google some of these names in and see if these people exist or if its that COITEL PRO or such.
I mean they were such as:
“I will never be taking my family to Portugal again”.
I don’t believe that any person that has not had a partial lobotomy is still supporting this couple.
I cannot believe in a country that size that half the population is brain dead.
I would love to be able to assess if these posters are real.
Anyway think I will cancel sailing. Needed the bucket after the comments.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Abraham Zapruder Says:
July 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
The key
*******
….of a RENTED car
To up date the old saying “children & drunks dont lie” ,lets add…. dogs
July 25th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Abraham
Is Gerry in PDL today or is that caption wrong????
July 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
The key
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-477801/Madeleine-Now-Portuguese-press-claims-scent-corpse-McCanns-keys.html
July 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
m.e.
Probably
C ) considered slightly dodgy (torches and pitchforks kept ready just in case).