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How The Media Treats Australian Backpacker Britt Lapthorne
The frantic family and friends of missing Australian backpacker Britt Lapthorne are appealing for help to trace her.
Anorak picked up on the story of the 21-year-old Melbourne woman who has been missing since September 18 after she visited a night club in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and seems to be among the first of the UK media to do so.
Britt, above, had been staying at a backpacker hostel and police failed to react quickly to a fellow backpacker’s anxious inquiries about her the following day. It was several days before her family were informed and her brother, Darren, and father, Dale, are now in Croatia and urging police to do more.
Britt was last seen in the Fuego nightclub in the city.
Croatian police say the son of the owner of the Dubrovnik hostel where Britt was staying was released after questioning but was not a formal suspect. Father Dale and brother Darren have now had to endure reports of the allegations their family member was known to be promiscuous.
Britt’s home city newspaper The Age today reported:
“The hostel manager detained by police over the disappearance of Melbourne backpacker Britt Lapthorne has broken his silence - and dealt another body blow to her devastated family.
“In a bizarre, exclusive interview with Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List, the hostel owners’ son Ivica Perkovic said he knew Britt only superficially but said he was aware of the many places in Bosnia she had travelled in the weeks before and that he had been told she was “open, maybe too open and promiscuous”.
Meanwhile friends have posted the story to Facebook and other internet sites;
In a posting in today’s Anorak Opinion section this appears:
The search for Britt is being widely covered in the Australian newspapers, radio and television but there doesn’t seem to have been much coverage in the UK or the US.
Britt’s family and friends are appealing for help in contacting backpackers/tourists who were in Dubrovnik 16th-18th September to send any photos taken in or around the Latino Club Fuego at that time.
Are you able to help us to get the word out to the British press? We have been trying to get something onto British radio, TV or newspapers but have had no success so far.
We are hoping that with your extensive contacts in the media, you may be able to help us.Time is critical. Her family is still holding onto the hope that Britt will be found alive and well.
This situation is frightening for all Australian tourists and the greatest nightmare for all parents and all Australians would be grateful for your help.
We Thank You and hope that you can assist us.
We will. These are the links which came from Nancye who posted the piece above:
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27451046357&ref=ts
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36964376801
http://www.lrcf.net/public-flyers/BRITTLAPTHORNE.pdf
Other links from Anorak reader Penster in Australia are:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
If you have any information or have had any contact with Britt contact the police wherever you are at once.
- AGW
Posted: 5th, October 2008 | In: Tabloids | Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed:RSS 2.0
Comments
October 5th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
it doesn’t sound good though her disapearence like that does it unfortunately.
October 5th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Has she been linked to the MM case yet?
October 5th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Its the complete indifference shown by the media, sam, both here and in Europe. Hundreds of our own youth go’ Gap’ year backpacking, they could be in all manner of trouble and danger,and is the indifference of the media the best we can do?
Coverage reached saturation point and beyond with Madeleine McCann, and the pedestal made for her parents.
Its one extreme or another, ogling to the point of nausea, or just not bothered, neither attitude is right
October 5th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
odd isn’t it june, that britt’s disapearence hasn’t been reported in the papers here. but then, don’t forget madeleiene was british, or is, and her parents british doctors and it kind of makes sense that her disapearence took off in the british papers but a missing australien didn’t. was there no coverage in australia ?
October 5th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
There was coverage in Australia about Britt but none is Europe either. But the Aussies covered the MM case, even though she isn’t an Aussie.
But a lot of British children go missing and the media show remarkable restraint.
For all we know Britts family could be UK ex pats?
October 5th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
june, madeleines disapearence was practically forced fed, they had a press spokesman, or people remember, initially even government sponsord, as in the taxpayer paid for it and then the fund paid for it, or wealthy sponsors did, the story of madeleines abduction was promoted professionally by poeple in the position to do so.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
but i am tired of the sleeze, and it is sleeze when such is said;
‘Jutarnji List, the hostel owners’ son Ivica Perkovic said he knew Britt only superficially but said he was aware of the many places in Bosnia she had travelled in the weeks before and that he had been told she was “open, maybe too open and promiscuous’
it reminds of when my daughter dumped a pain in the neck and he turned around spreading all types of stuff similar to that simply cos he didn’t get where he wanted to, that’s what that comment made by jutarnji list reads like to me.
October 5th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
sam, it’s is also ‘Hearsay’ sleeze; he claims that ‘that he had been told’.
Who by?
Why say it if it’s just an anonymous comment by an anonymous individual who doesn’t even have the guts to identify himself?
Tabloid-land, where no-one ever takes responsibility for anything, and where journalists are prepared to treat the sort of stuff which might have been exchanged over garden fences when people were hanging the washing out as ‘news’, seems increasingly to be regarded as ‘normal’.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
chenier, well i think he could’ve been told that or just invented it. why was he picked up for questioning in the first place i wonder.
October 5th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
On the whole, ‘who was this person last seen with’ is a very good question to ask if someone goes missing.
I recall the tragedy in the US recently where the police ignored the fact a young girl was last seen in the company of her uncle, who had spent time in jail for rape and kidnapping, in favour of issuing an Amber Alert. Her body was found a week or so later, and her uncle awaits charges.
So it’s logical for the police to work backwards from a last sighting; the shame lies in the fact that the media seems uninterested in doing anything to try and provide the coverage which the media here has assured us so often can make all the difference to finding someone….
They can’t have it both ways…
October 5th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Sam
Sorry was otherwise occupied with domestic issues.
The glut of emotional hogwash over MM and her parents was just sickening in the extreme, but its the callous indifference towards others in the same situation that gets me riled.
There has to be a balance of reporting, in a missing person case, whatever their age they can be just as helpless as a tiny child.
I know we see headlines of say an aircrash and 150 killed,then the UK media find out two Brits were on board and we are swamped with details we do not need to know.
We do have a form of celeb- worship these days, but it isn’t news, its gossip.
All the past fortnight we have heard about Jade Goody and her cancer, yes its sad a young woman fighting for her life, but this morning I read of Wendy Richard who has a far more severe battle on her hands, and has had for several years.
but I’m digressing , its the Media who are not presenting events in the manner they could to keep us informed
October 5th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
june, me too, i’ve let the potatoes burn!
well anoraks point is to take the mick out of it all isn’t it ?
October 5th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
chenier, yes, i remember that too, and it’s like normal or good/practised police proceedure is ignored, when i should not be. the normal way of ‘looking at things’ is to look at the family first, then aquaintences and friends of the family and then the wider field. that is what the pj did and the mccanns to my mind tried to hinder that normal and very right way of policework.
as to the media i think it’s important not to forget that it was manipulated. yes, mostly it’s gossip and sleezy but in mm’s case it was most definately directed, there were interferences from government and there were pr mangers. what normal missing person has that, no-one really unless strings are pulled and strings were pulled, the old boy school network kicked in i think, a phone call here and there sort of thing., and me and you, if we want to know what happened it’s not possible without filling in well worded request form which could still get denied if it’s deemed a risk. something is very foul in the mm case.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
sam
I come back to the point that Tony Blair’s Government was probably the nadir of PR; all surface, no substance, and the disappearance of Madeleine was manna from Heaven when the media were running on a massive scandal about Tony’s bosom buddie using the honours granted to him by Tony to support his perjury to a High Court Judge.
And all of a sudden there were photogenic, middle class parents with a pretty child who had gone missing; guaranteed tabloid interest, guaranteed tv sofa time, guaranteed opportunity for Tony’s hack -and Clarrie was Tony’s hack-to distract from the Lord Browne scandal.
A perfect opportunity for Teflon Tony to be spun as the good guy helping these poor, tragic, middle class and photogenic parents, with the pretty missing daughter, as opposed to the guy who handed out a knighthood and a life peerage to one of his best friends who was so honest that he was prepared to perjure himself.
In a government that was capable of spinning the country into a war, are you surprised that they would be prepared to spin a tale to take the heat off a scandal?
If you look back to ‘This would be a good day to bury bad news’ on the day the twin towers fell, it does give some insight to the way they think.
I have no doubt that all sorts of backhanded things were done, which should not have been done; I still doubt that there was a reason beyond the corruption of a government which ruled by deceit and subterfuge…
October 11th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
A comment from an Aussie.
The reason we wanted coverage in England was that there might be someone, somewhere who may have seen Britt at the Fuego Club. Many backpackers eventaually wind up in London. It is a right of passage for most young Australian travellers. Unfortunately, this morning we heard the news that Britt is indeed dead and now we must move on to the next phase. As a friend of Britt’s and her family all I can say is that I knew her to be a caring, happy, beautiful person.
See: Britt’s Legacy