After 18 years of Madeleine’s disappearance, in the Algarve, Gerry MacCann still recognized that the hope of finding his daughter is small
The father of Madeleine McCann, the British girl who disappeared in Portugal in 2007, called for stricter regulations for the press in the United Kingdom, highlighting, in a rare interview, how much the family suffered with the media attention surrounding her disappearance.
Gerry McCann, in an interview with BBC radio this Wednesday, said that he and his wife, Kate, felt “lucky to have survived” the press intrusion into the couple’s private lives over the unsolved case of Maddie’s disappearance at the age of 3, which has generated enormous press interest.
“Journalists came to our house, photographers even placed their cameras right next to our car window while we had two-year-old twins terrified in the backseat”, he reported in the interview, emphasizing “how exhausting this is for a father” and the moments in which he felt as if he were drowning.
Denouncing “the invented stories”, the “lies, the distortions”, Gerry McCann accused the British press of having repeatedly interfered in the investigation into his daughter’s disappearance, and regretted that information had been published that should have remained confidential.
Gerry and Kate McCann are among around 30 signatories to a letter sent to Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling for the continuation of the public inquiry into press practices, the first phase of which was completed in 2012.
This inquiry was launched after a scandal that involved journalists from the now-defunct News of the World tabloid and wiretapping prominent British figures, such as a murdered student.
The inquiry led to the creation of a new press regulatory body, but a second phase, focusing on relations between journalists, politicians and the police, was canceled by the previous Conservative government.
The Labor Party, now in power, has not revived this second phase, although it has promised to do so, according to Gerry McCann, who would like “tougher standards” in the press.
After 18 years of Madeleine’s disappearance, in the Algarve, Gerry MacCann acknowledged that the hope of finding his daughter is small, but stressed that this hope has not been extinguished and that the couple needs to know what happened to their daughter.
