MADELEINE MCCANN – PONTOS DE VISTA CONTRÁRIOS OU A VIDA E A MORTE

Este caso tem uma importância muito para além do caso em si.

Permite uma profunda reflexão sobre a Condição Humana na União Europeia em 2007.

APRESENTAMOS AS POSIÇÕES BRITÂNICAS EM «THE OBSERVER» E A POSIÇÃO DE GERRY MCCANN.

A seguir uma reflexão sobre este caso em «The Observer»:


« The McCann case is no place for anonymity


Peter Preston
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer
What do we think of Portuguese plods, then? Asked and answered, on page six of the Daily Mail. They've 'launched an astonishing smear campaign against Kate McCann' apparently. They say she's 'hysterical and visibly out of control'. They're 'trying to convince the public prosecutor they have a strong enough case' to bring murder charges, so they peddle ever more 'lurid' allegations. They obviously can't be trusted. And yet - page one of the selfsame Mail edition last week - their 'sensational new forensic claims' turn into another walloping lead story: Maddie - 'DNA in hire car is hers'.
Welcome to the wilderness world of unusually unreliable sources, where you warn your readers what a load of old Iberian rubbish these anonymous police briefers are recycling for their own purposes, and simultaneously clear your front page for another truckload of the same garbage. Confused? Of course. And not by accident, either.
Forget about specks of blood in the boot; they've turned to body fluids or strands of hair. Bring on Mrs McCann's secret diaries and Mr McCann's mobile phone. Recover hundreds of missing emails. Find traces of blood somewhere else... perhaps. Scan the Lisbon tabloids for a line or two more. And some French evening paper's got a sleeping tablet theory... Seldom have so many mystic spouters unleashed such a river of blood-curdling headlines. Even the guys with their notebooks open, commuting from Portimao to Rothley, can't keep up. But remember that weighty banner across the top of the Telegraph: 'Police "confident" about charging parents soon'. You can be equally confident of some fresh amazement tomorrow.
It isn't enough, though, to tut-tut and moralise about 'innocent until proven guilty' (as too many higher-minded critics of press and BBC alike have done). These are very deep waters.
For one thing, the Maddie chat, on the train, in the bar, round the water cooler, has been all-engulfing (at least until Steve McLaren picked a winning team and Northern Rock cracked). For another, the Portuguese briefing effort, theoretically banned under local law, has often seemed more riposte than attack. Turn to page one of the Daily Mirror after the two doctors had flown back to Britain and, marked 'exclusive', read how 'Kate sobbed in despair as she sat alone in her daughter's pink-painted bedroom'. Reach for the Sun - another exclusive - and find Gerry McCann telling 'a pal' that 'we're being set up and I've had enough.' Briefer meet briefer. There's two-way traffic up Privacy Street.
Since the early days when they had British Embassy press help, the McCanns have called up two of their own professional public relations advisers-cum-spokesmen, including Justine McGuinness (who moves on this weekend because of 'pressure of work'). They can also turn to an array of 'family and friends', as well as Phil Hall, former News of the World editor and rival to Max Clifford. Through the early months of their search for Madeleine, moreover, they virtually owned the details of what may or may not have happened to their daughter, because the police stayed silent. Perception and perceived fact were both framed on their terms. There were two leaked accounts of Mrs McCann's 11-hour interrogation. There were, and clearly are still, 'exclusives' available to known, trusted correspondents who followed the circus. Thus was a PR battle joined.
None of which, of course, speaks to the guilt or innocence of anyone involved. The McCanns went into public relations because they said they wanted to sustain a memorable campaign in search of Madeleine. The Portuguese authorities weren't up to such speed to begin with. Rules have bent under pressure as they've gone along. But one old problem is manifest.
Take a huge story with huge issues attached: a handsome, middle-class British couple, a wide-eyed child, a controversial decision to leave her sleeping a few yards away while mum, dad and friends eat out. Take a throng of Fleet Street's and TV's finest, cooling their heels. Much interest, not many news breaks. Take a funny, 'foreign' legal system, without UK contempt of court laws. Take a police force that only chats off the record to Portuguese reporters. Then take a chance...
Would there have been the same debate and the same loyalties if Phil Hall or a 'pal on the payroll' or Mrs McCann herself had been identified as the briefer-in-chief? Would a named Portuguese cop have done better on camera? In any case, anonymity was, and remains, the mortal foe of credibility.
It wasn't necessary to keep who said what under wraps. It was an affront to understanding, a pact of silence slackly and sloppily entered into, and now laced with secondhand testimony lifted from Portuguese papers. Anything goes, it seems, as long as you pour your own scorn on it on page six.
Some subjects are too serious and too painful for the usual back-scratching and back-biting. Some subjects need the basic discipline of telling us who said what - so that we have a chance of working out for ourselves why they said it. »

(In «The Observer»/«The Guardian»)




A SEGUIR O PONTO DE VISTA DE GERRY MCCANN EXPRESSO NO SEU SITE:


« Latest Update
The advice of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is that high visibility of a missing child through posters, car stickers etc increases the chances of finding that child. The friends and family of Kate and Gerry urge everyone to please keep looking for Madeleine. Our greatest fear has always been that Madeleine would somehow be forgotten about and that our efforts to bring her back safely would run out of support. We know in our hearts that Madeleine is still out there, alive, confused and aching to be returned to her family where she belongs. Whatever happens, please don't forget that. Don't forget about Madeleine. http://www.youtube.com/user/DontYouForgetAboutMe »


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« Gerry's Blog/Diary


Day 136 - 16/09/2007

Sorry for not updating the blog for such a long time but obviously we have been incredibly busy during this last tumultuous week. The entries will probably be every few days or if there is a major development in the future.

Thank you for all the cards, letters, flowers, gifts and messages of support. It means so much to us to know that so many people have not been deceived by rumour, innuendo and wild speculation. Most importantly the search for Madeleine carries on and our family have not given up hope of finding her.

Live in Rothley is still a long way off normal with the large media presence but it is beginning to settle down somewhat. We all managed to go to mass today and it was comforting to pray for Madeleine with friends and family in our local church. »