Gerry McCann calls for press control laws - 75% of the public agree

Inspectorfrost wrote:I would agree with him that the press should not print false stories of sightings and his machiavellian spokesperson keep his dirty fingers out, works both ways

The McCanns are well qualified to pontificate on the subject of control of information and opinion. How many people here are aware that they have managed to prevent the British from reading a book, written by someone who knew more about the original investigation than any of us, and which is freely available to the rest of the world

Gerry should keep this personnel. Making speeches and trying to save us all from the media is not his business. He used fire and was burnt - why I'm even motivated to write such nasty observations annoys me but I still find it distasteful to see newspapers publishing these type of stories to stoke up public feeling against these 2 parents. Grieve and recover. Revealing this helps nobody.

In his evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, Gerry McCann stated that, in early 2011, just before the revelations that led to the closure of the News of the World, the McCanns were in negotiations with Rebekah Wade and Will Lewis at News International to sell serialisation rights to Mrs McCann's book to the Sun and the Times.
Not only would NI pay them £550k but Wade would use her personal contacts with Cameron to pressure Teresa May to 'review' the case.
Hacked Off and the McCanns make for strange bedfellows.

If this pair of appalling self-publicists want a state-controlled media, let them go and live in Havana.


2007 and you really should look at the source of those stories.
The Guardian prides itself on looking at the facts but at no time has the paper ever indicated it had even looked at the available police files.
It's not enough to blame the tabloids for inaccurate reporting while looking in the opposite direction and blithely recycling press releases from the McCanns' expensive PR and legal machine.

What I think that Mr McCann may be trying to say is that the press should only print his opinions. That he is allowed to harness the power of the publicity without criticism.
What I am trying to say is that there are enough laws covering press freedom to sufficiently police the media in general. I, myself, would like to hear both sides of a story, not the frightened editorial of a press that has lost its ability to question the events and opinions of the day.
Being challenged is part of understanding that there is more than one point of view on any story. Should the press trespass into illegality then of course they should be held to account. On the other hand I do not believe that even the Mail tortures its informants like the Americans! In this I suppose that I follow Mr Hislop.

Observer online editor naively leaves article on McCanns open for online comments overnight without moderation. Tch.
I have huge respect for the Guardian. It's my newspaper of choice. The majority of your investigative journalism is first class. But you've got a blind spot on the McCanns and it seems to be fed by your anti tabloid agenda.
It's true that the tabloids printed acres of rubbish about the McCanns in summer 2007. But they also printed acres of rubbish about Robert Murat in autumn 2

If I had gotten away with accidentally killing one of my children by giving them too many sedatives, I'd want more press control as well.

@c23e - "As for the McCanns - once again the media jump on the easy targets and readers with little knowledge believe them.Because we disagree with their poor judgement about the safety of leaving children home alone does not make them guilty. " - Clearly you haven't read the investigation case files, but who can blame you if your perspective of this case is just a one sided view, i.e. what you were fed by the McCann's PR and propaganda in the UK media. Didn't you say you were a journalist, why don't you seek "out the truth by reasoned and in-depth questioning, and persistent follow-up questioning"? The PJ case files are widely available in the internet, translated by volunteers, despite some previous attempts of censorship. Inform yourself of the facts, forget Clarence Mitchell spins.
Finally are you really saying that the McCanns are not guilty for leaving Madeleine, 3 y.o., and her twin siblings, 18 months, alone, unsupervised, completely out of sight & sound, over 120 yards away, 5 nights in a roll?! Despite the fact, that her three years old daughter had asked her "Where were you last night, when me and Sean cried?" - from Kate McCann's police statement. You sure have a skewed notion of parental responsibility.

"Gerry McCann calls for press control laws", banning "The Truth of The Lie" book, a documentary, and attempting, with the help of Carter Ruck, to silence all dissent voices is not enough, is it? Let's also stifle Free Speech and a Free Press. That has always been the McCanns agenda, reputation management and nothing else!

aquila wrote:What next? Gerry McCann enters politics?

Jean wrote:Seeing the number of undesirables who gravitate towards politics, ranging from those who fiddle their expenses to those who are paedophiles, it does seem to be an obvious choice for Gerry.

All in my humble opinion of course!

Mirage wrote:
..... and Gerald McCann???
Read this list and weep. Many of those who gave us our freedom paid with their lives.

PeterMac wrote:

Mirage wrote:
..... and Gerald McCann???
Read this list and weep. Many of those who gave us our freedom paid with their lives.

Madeleine paid with her life, and he wants to curtail freedom. Bitter irony indeed.

tigger wrote:Gerry McCann is not an admirer of Voltaire I would guess (assuming that he would even know of Voltaire)

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire

Censorship will do away with discussion and the opportunity to see both sides of an argument.

kitchen wrote:http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/376695/Law-should-back-press-regulation

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