Madeleine McCann: Reading Amaral’s Book, Free Speech And Elvis

MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann…

THE GUARDIAN: “On the front line in the search for Maddie - Gonçalo Amaral’s intriguing memoir of the Madeleine McCann case offers no solution but reveals a man obsessed by the investigation”

Ned Temko is reading Amaral’s book:

It is a shame that this revealing memoir from Gonçalo Amaral, the police chief who ran the Madeleine McCann investigation until he was unceremoniously fired last year, has not been published in English…

Indeed it is. And a disappointment that no British paper has sought to serialise the work. Aren’t we interested in what the copper thinks? Or are we too scared to publish it? What of free speech, then?
Wouldn’t any reader of sound mind dismiss slights against the McCanns’ involvement?

Within minutes of its appearance in Portuguese bookshops, the McCanns’ spokesman let it be known their lawyers would be giving it a thorough read, with an eye to the kind of libel action that ended up costing the Express group £500,000 earlier this year. And that was before the Portuguese authorities finally cleared the couple last month of any suspicion.

We’ve been scared off. But:

Surely it won’t be long before enterprising translators feed the juicier bits to an online conspiracy community that, in the 15 months since the cherubic three-year-old went missing from Praia da Luz, has elevated Madeleine into something close to a new Elvis.

Has she been seen in America?

Or in the phrase Amaral prefers to use, with no evident trace of irony, in the book’s acknowledgements: ‘cybernauts and bloggers who have been defending the cause of truth and justice.’

Or just proclaiming themselves “pro” or “anti” McCann, as if that helps:

Yet even for those of us who happen to believe that Elvis is no more, the book offers a page-turning compendium of unexplained puzzles - as are so frequently found in wide-ranging, complex investigations.

Now don’t read on…

LIVERPOOL ECHO: “Why we shouldn’t be frightened of the big, wide world”

Fiona Ennys plays Tabloid Bingo! Eyes down…

CATHERINE Mullany’s murder on the ‘paradise’ island of Antigua was awful and tragic.

Tick!

People like me who, until the expansion of package travel in the 1960s never saw further than perhaps Blackpool or Scarborough, now have the opportunity to visit supremely exotic destinations like Asia and Africa.

And..?

And it’s fantastic.

Phew! Go on…

It’s so easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when you are on holiday; the family of little Madeleine McCann know, only too painfully, about that.

Tick!

THE SUNDAY TIMES: “Big Yin on a voyage to explore big waste - Billy Connolly is recreating the Arctic journeys of two great pioneers for ITV”

ITV approached Connolly as part of its drive to get more factual “big access pieces” for the 8pm-9pm slots following on from the success of documentaries on JK Rowling and Madeleine McCann.

That’s entertainment (sha-la-la-la-la)…

Anorak

Posted: 3rd, August 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (284) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink