The McCann family Father Urges Stricter Media Regulation Following Accounts of Press "Tormenting".
The father of Madeleine McCann has urged for more robust scrutiny of the UK media, detailing how intense press coverage made him feel as if he was being "drowning under the pressure".
The McCanns Subjected to Press "Abuses"
According to Gerry McCann, his family was tormented by press "intrusions" and that the media had "frequently disrupted" the search for answers regarding his daughter's disappearance in 2007.
He noted that the intrusion took a "significant emotional cost" on his family. "We endured constant scrutiny and misleading headlines for many months that led us to take legal action to stop it," he reportedly said.
"We were fortunate. We got through it. We received incredible backing. However, I assure you, there were times where I felt like I was overwhelmed, and it was the media, primarily, not the situation we were in," he reflected.
A Call to Restart Press Regulation Review
The McCanns are among dozens of individuals who have endorsed a letter asking ministers to restart the second part of the Leveson inquiry, which was set up to look into the links between the media and the police.
McCann said it was not acceptable that over a year later, press regulation was "off the agenda". He said that his family had been subjected to "relentless targeting" by sections of the media and that the press was "camped" outside his home for an extended period after Madeleine went missing.
Describing the Intrusion
Recalling the harassment, he said: "Reporters arriving at our home, photographers pushing their cameras against our car window, when we had two-year-old twins in the back who were scared, and how upsetting that is for you as a parent."
"It's the misleading narratives. It's the making up of stories to fit the agenda, rather than the truth, which ruins lives," he added.
The Need for Stronger Regulation and Accountability
He said the conduct demonstrated why there needed to be more robust press regulation. "We'd be getting ready for bed, we'd put on the news, and there'd be splash stories about ourselves and alleged events," he described.
"That almost pulls you under, and you can see how people succumb to it and think they can't get out of it. The harm is profound, and we need that protection. There has to be redress. And at the minute, for most of the large media outlets, there is little accountability," he concluded.
Official Position and Changing Media Landscape
The Culture Secretary commented that a second phase of the inquiry had been rejected and that the media landscape was now profoundly changed.
"We share the view that the landscape has transformed profoundly since the Leveson's second phase was proposed: the public is now more likely to get their news online from a whole variety of sources, which has thrown up new and different challenges," they stated.
It was also noted that balancing the rights of victims with the need for a free press was a "really difficult thing to get right," but acknowledged that "action is needed in this area".
A Continued Search for Closure
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007 as a three-year-old. Gerry McCann said that it was "absolutely dismaying" how the press had frequently obstructed with the investigation.
"Published material which ought to have remained private... This meant a potential culprit, you knew far more than you should have done," he explained.
On the prospect of finding Madeleine, he said the hope he would find his daughter was "faint yet persistent". "I'd love to find her alive, but we need to find out what happened and see justice served, and other children are at risk while that perpetrator is free," he stated.
