|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More than three years ago
Madeleine McCann vanished from an
apartment in
a Portugese seaside town. Madeleine was three years old and 11 months.
She has now been missing for almost as long.
She disappeared on the evening of Thursday May 3rd. I arrived in
Praia Da Luz the next day. I felt sure she would be found and that I would be
back in the UK before the weekend was over. I now know how wrong I was.
So much is easy with hindsight. I can say today with confidence that the
police hunt for Madeleine was utterly inadequate. One of the detectives
admitted as much in a newspaper article this weekend. I didn’t once see
officers searching apartments in the area.
I look back at the media’s coverage of the events that would unfold with
deep disappointment. Good journalists under pressure from London took
far too many risks with the truth. Collectively in my honest view, we
lost our balance. Some journalists lost the plot.
At the centre of it all this were two parents who had no idea how to
handle such pressure. The last time I saw
Kate and Gerry McCann was at a
news conference around a year ago. They looked as shell shocked as when
I first saw them – perhaps more so. The suffering they are enduring is
unimaginable.
And yet, there continues to be a group of individuals who use the
internet to attack these two poor parents. I hear from them all the time
via Twitter. They demand that I investigate this or that “if you don’t
you’re not a reporter” one informed me recently. After a report I
produced for
NBC News
over the weekend I was subjected to a torrent of
abusive messages – one suspects they are co-ordinating their attacks for
best effect.
There was even one sick individual who created a Twitter account
pretending to be Madeleine and then ‘tweeted’ about where she was. Thank
god, the account was quickly taken down.
These people say they are ‘truth seekers’. They are not. What they write
is just nasty, obsessive and vicious. They are not journalists, not even
campaigners, they represent the worst of the human psyche electronically
unleashed.
People who read this blog will know that I see free speech as
fundamental. And that I love Twitter and Facebook because they make free
speech available to anyone with a computer. But we now see consistent
examples of that free speech used irresponsibly.
So I find myself considering cutting these people off, ‘blocking’ them
in the terminology of Twitter. Is that the right thing to do? I think it
might be.
After this article they will send me abuse and vitriol over the web. I
can deal with that of course. But why should two parents who have
suffered so much continue to have this groundless campaign against them?
Those involved claim they believe in ‘truth’ yet ignore any evidence
that doesn’t fit their conspiracy theory. They claim to love children,
yet ignore the effect their ‘campaign’ might have on Kate and Gerry
McCann’s
twins as they grow up and begin to comprehend such things.
I worry that by allowing them to communicate with me, by effectively
engaging with them, I am encouraging them. Perhaps it’s time for me in
my own small way to say ‘stop’, I’d like to know what you think. Please
send me your views on Twitter (ironically) or Facebook. |
|
|
|
DR AMARALS
WINS COURT APPEAL AGAINST MCCANNS COURT DOCUMENTS 14 OCT 2010
|
|
GO TO QUORN
PHOTO SHOOT AND VIDEOS |
|
NEWS NOVEMBER 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
