MADELEINE MCCANN - MISTÉRIO E GUERRAS DE «MEDIA» TRADICONAIS

O caso em si do desaparecimento de Madeleine McCann continua um mistério muito complicado.

As guerras dos «media» por causa deste difícil caso aumentam de intensidade, nomeadamente dentro do Reino Unido.






«McCann story sparks news row


John Plunkett
Monday August 13, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk


A war of words has broken out between the heads of BBC and ITV news over coverage of the Madeleine McCann story.
The BBC head of TV News, Peter Horrocks, accused rival news organisations of "treating rumour as being newsworthy", and singled out ITV's coverage of reports last week that the missing four-year-old had been spotted in Belgium.

The ITV news editor-in-chief, David Mannion, defended his bulletins' coverage and described Mr Horrocks' comments as "little more than an excuse for missing [the story]".

Mr Horrocks, writing on his BBC blog, said there was a "mass of hysterical rumour" surrounding Madeleine's disappearance, which had been fuelled by "a media for whom this story is a potential commercial opportunity".
"The situation that many facts are not reliably established has not stopped many of our press and broadcast colleagues from treating rumour as being newsworthy," said Mr Horrocks.

"For instance, ITN led last week on a claim that a child like Madeleine had been sighted in Belgium. ITN headlined this with a lurid photo-fit of a suspect abductor with the words 'Does this man have Madeleine McCann?'.

"The BBC gave little prominence to the possible Belgian sighting on the basis that there have been many previous false sightings.

"Yesterday, it turned out that DNA tests had shown that the Belgian sighting is very likely to have been false."

However, Mr Mannion said the Belgian sighting was different to previous false alarms regarding Madeleine, and said his channel had followed it up with interviews with the "witness" and Belgian police.

"Though I regard it as unseemly to squabble over such a tragic event as the one now engulfing the McCann family, I feel I must correct the impression made by Peter Horrocks concerning the reporting of a story by ITV news.

"May I point out that, like the BBC, ITV news has given little or no prominence to the countless sightings which appeared to have no basis in fact. The Belgium sighting, however, was different.

"The person who believed she saw Madeleine was a highly credible witness, a professional woman who worked with children and often worked with the police. We sought and achieved an interview with the woman in order that we might establish for ourselves her credentials and to question her about what she saw.

"The police in Belgium confirmed that they regarded the matter worthy of detailed follow-up investigation.

"In my book this was a story and your article, Peter, amounts to little more than an excuse for missing it."

Mr Horrocks, writing on the BBC editors' blog last Friday, said the McCann story had created "quite a few dilemmas for BBC news".

"It is an uncomfortable position. The BBC absolutely needs to distinguish between fact and rumour. But the enormous febrile and emotional atmosphere, enflamed by a media for whom this story is a potential commercial opportunity, have made that hard.

"I can't help reflecting that all this mass of hysterical rumour stands in very stark contrast to the one incontestable sad fact - a little girl has disappeared in unexplained circumstances." »