Gerry McCann writes article in Guardian.......

Leveson has changed nothing– the media still put ‘stories’ before the truth

As I know from experience, if papers tell lies about you, they’ll be able to get away with it pretty much scot free. The public backs change – and editors must act
                



   

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  • The Guardian, Thursday 2 October 2014 19.14 BS
    
    
  
  
  

More on link



http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/02/leveson-gerry-mccann-media-stories-before-truth

39 comments so far.

[snipped from article.}

Since then, it has taken 11 months and the filing of a legal claim to get the Sunday Times to agree to damages, all of which we are donating to charity, and to get our right to tell the public that we had won the case. But the cost to the paper is peanuts – the fee for a single advertisement will probably cover it. And there will be no consequences for anyone working there.




Damages are being donated to charity and not to the Fund??

No chance will the greedy gruesome twosome donate any money to a charity.

He might stuff a tenner in some charity box for a token gesture. Nah doubt it actually.

He will want to keep it all.

Gerry McCann writes article in Guardian.......

Post  candyfloss Today at 9:13 pm
Leveson has changed nothing– the media still put ‘stories’ before the truth

***
Now ain't that the truth, Gerry McCann?
You know, IMO, most of them will spin whatever you want them to spin.
But it is a FACT, that the e-fits of "Smithman" were not released to the police until a year after they were made. The "public had to wait even longer.
And it's a FACT, that you suppressed the Exon report, until you were forced to allow them to be handed over to the Met. Correct me, if I'm wrong.

Oh my giddy aunt. The media campaign to end all media campaigns, the icing on the cake from the big man himself.

October must be a big month.

Gerry McCann attacks ‘disgraceful’ Sunday Times after £55k libel payout
Payout follows allegations that couple deliberately hindered search for daughter Madeleine
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Jane Martinson
The Guardian, Thursday 2 October 2014 19.22 BST
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Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
Kate and Gerry McCann, whose daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal in 2007. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
Gerry McCann, the father of missing Madeleine, has accused the Sunday Times of behaving “disgracefully”, after winning a libel payout from the newspaper in a case he believes proves how little the industry has changed following the phone-hacking scandal.

McCann and his wife Kate were handed £55,000 in libel damages from the Murdoch-owned paper over a front page story which alleged that the couple had deliberately hindered the search for their daughter, who went missing in Portugal seven years ago.

The McCanns said in a statement: “The Sunday Times has behaved disgracefully. There is no sign of any post-Leveson improvement in the behaviour of newspapers like this.”

Writing in the Guardian, Gerry McCann repeats calls he made to the public inquiry into press intrusion, conducted by Lord Justice Leveson, for a “quick, effective way of correcting false reports in newspapers” and called on the next government to implement the proposals set out by Leveson but rejected by much of the industry.

After an 11-month battle for redress, the McCanns said the Sunday Times had failed to give them a proper opportunity to comment on what they called “grotesque and utterly false” allegations, failed to publish the full response they made and offered a “half-baked, inadequate response”. Even when the paper agreed to retract the allegations and apologise two months after publication, this was “tucked away” on an inside page. After this, the couple hired libel lawyers Carter-Ruck to sue for damages, they said.

The revelation of the libel damages comes as the Metropolitan police are investigating an 80-page dossier of abusive tweets, Facebook posts and messages on online forums aimed at the McCanns. A spokesman for the couple said newspaper articles helped feed into the abuse from trolls, who felt “vindicated” by them.

In the statement, the McCanns said: “Despite the history of admitted libels in respect of my family by so many newspapers, the Sunday Times still felt able to print an indefensible front page story last year and then force us to instruct lawyers – and even to start court proceedings – before it behaved reasonably. But the damage to reputation and to feelings has been done and the Sunday Times can sit back and enjoy its sales boost based on lies and abuse.

“This is exactly why parliament and Lord Justice Leveson called for truly effective independent self-regulation of newspapers – to protect ordinary members of the public from this sort of abuse. The fact is that most families could not take the financial and legal risk of going to the high court and facing down a big press bully as we have. That is why News UK and the big newspapers have opposed Leveson’s reforms and the arbitration scheme which is a necessary part of it.”

Carter-Ruck agreed to act on a no-win, no-fee basis, a system threatened by proposed changes to the law. The £55,000 is to be donated to two charities for missing people and sick children.

The Sunday Times said: “We have agreed a settlement with Mr and Mrs McCann.”

Much of the industry, with the exception of the Guardian, the Independent and the Financial Times, has set up its own regulatory body, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), which started life three weeks ago.

In the statement, McCann calls Ipso the “latest industry poodle”. The McCanns have been involved in the Hacked Off campaign to tighten press regulation.

His latest experience underlined the need for change, said McCann. “The cost to the paper is peanuts – the fee for a single advertisement will probably cover it. And there will be no consequences for anyone working there. Nothing will be done to ensure that in future reporters and editors try harder to get things right. And so the same people will do something similar, soon, to some other unfortunate family, who will probably not have our hard-earned experience of dealing with these things and who will probably never succeed in getting a correction or an apology.

“So what has changed in the newspaper industry since the Leveson report two years ago? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

A dossier of online abuse directed at the family is being examined by police. Members of the public have handed Scotland Yard a file stretching to more than 80 pages of tweets, Facebook posts and forum messages, according to Sky News.

The material is said to include suggestions that the couple should be tortured or killed. One comment reportedly said: “These 2 should burn in hell.”

Scotland Yard said: “We can confirm we received a letter and documentation on 9 September which was passed to officers from Operation Grange [the Met’s involvement in the search for Madeleine]. They are assessing its contents and consulting with the CPS and the McCann family.”

So Gerry gets to diss the Times via the guardian,and sky news have an all day McCann fest? one would think dial M for Murdoch has sold his soul to ???£???£. now makes me wonder if this sky news McCann troll day wasn't part of the settlement

Meanwhile on twitter the "troll" is being "trolled" ... disgustingly ...

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=sweepyface&src=tyah

Châtelaine wrote:Meanwhile on twitter the "troll" is being "trolled" ... disgustingly ...

https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=sweepyface&src=tyah

there are a lot of people supporting her too though.

Well it all seems to be kicking off from a PR perspective. I'm not really sure how the McCanns can sue the Times though, it was a factual article based on a report that the McCanns themselves commissioned. Not sure why News International has opted to run the troll story, but then again, as there is very little in way of actual threats etc maybe they are doing it to show what nonsense it is, because whilst there were a few, very nasty and unnecessary stuff, most of it just directs to the PJ files etc..maybe that's what Sky are doing, click bait headline that encourages people to look further perhaps

But whatever it is, I think the McCanns are on the offensive imo

It's times like this when I get the most fed up of this pantomime. Why does he keep getting away with it?

O dear, I'm getting this 'hacked off' feeling again. So far a big disappointment to the founder members.

Also remember Lord McAlpine who demanded an amazing amount of information from tweeters and had a solicitor draw up a form to be filled in by those who had offended the Lord- (McA, not the other one) with all details off the offenders apart from their shoe size.

I remember that form because imo it must have transgressed several civil liberty issues.

Sorry, folks, I know I'm in the minority on here on this issue, but to me all this is further evidence of a whitewash. Sweepyface fits the profile of any one of us,sensible, enquiring and not a hater. This is an effort to make us all back of to enable the endgame to achieve it's purpose. My opinion only.

Gerry McCann is right about one thing though. £55k IS peanuts to the likes of Murdoch.  Why did the mighty Carter Ruck settle out of court for such a paltry amount?  When they are actually expecting to get a cool million from Goncalo Amaral?

Resistor wrote:Gerry McCann is right about one thing though. £55k IS peanuts to the likes of Murdoch.  Why did the mighty Carter Ruck settle out of court for such a paltry amount?  When they are actually expecting to get a cool million from Goncalo Amaral?

Lawyers are expensive.

It would have cost far more than £55,000 to have been taken to court. Carter Ruck don't care, they'd get paid either way unless the case had got to court and the McCanns lost.

So everyone's a winner; Murdoch saves on legal fees, Carter Ruck are paid and the McCanns save face.

It's just a shame that they didn't get the McCanns to sign a non-disclosure agreement so we wouldn't be subjected to Gerry running off any whining to another paper.

It was stated that Carter Ruck worked on a 'no win no fee' basis.

Don't believe that for a second.

Gerry couldn't really come out with yeah it cost us a 100k in legal fees from the Find Madeleine fund, you know the fund that all you kind hearted gullible people donated to and we only got just over half that back.

Ok Gerry so if they did work on a no win no fee basis then how much of this 55k will go to pay them? How much are you allegedly donating to a charity (pull the other one) and how much are you sticking in your back pocket?

Gerry McCann on Radio 4



LHL News ‏@LHLNews               
@JillyCL 2014-10-03 Listen again to Gerry #McCann being interviewed this morning's Radio 4 Today programme @ 1.35 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04jm9mv …

Well first of all, I'm surprised the McCanns had to hire lawyers Carter Ruck, I thought they had them on a permanent retainer.

Also very strange how the big bully media has given them £55k from the one hand, and dedicated a day's news to them from the other - wonder if it was all part of the deal? The McCanns firmly believe that the more they get their story (and faces) out there, the more chance they have of turning public opinion back in their favour. There is a certain glee in that for some of us because we can see that they are in fact digging themselves into an even deeper hole.

Yesterday, we had a day's whitewashing from Sky News, almost every hour, on the hour, possibly accompanied by a subliminal 'you will believe' message to further hypnotise the especially dozy. Then we had the imposing presence of Jim Gamble ramming home the menace and bullying message just to make it absolutely clear, that they will go after anyone questioning the official story. How many perfectly innocent people with legitimate questions about Madeleine's disappearance been scared away by these shock tactics? The message was clear. Anyone tweeting negatively about the McCanns will come to the attention of the police. We are all under surveillance because we don't believe the ridiculous abduction story.

And just to hammer the message home, Gerry and Kate have again received a substantial payment from a UK newspaper, said by them to have been donated to a charity (which one?) and they are back up on their pedestal demanding the newspaper industry be gagged. The only people who want newspapers gagged are those with something to hide. What kind of police state are we turning into where journalists are imprisoned and every story has to be run by the subject, before it can go to press?

Its not the tories demanding the media gags, they have running the gauntlet with press barons since time began, its New Labour and the increasingly more sinister Hacked Off. A public that votes to gag the free press, is a public walking blindly into police controlled State.

A free press comes with good and bad, those used to the limelight, or born to it, treat it with the same attitude as the Windsors, 'Don't Complain', Don't Explain'. Those who choose to put their private lives in the public domain, again and again, invite public comment, especially those who pose for 'Hello' style photoshoots and tell the world 'I couldn't make love to my husband'. The McCanns make themselves the news, ergo comment will follow.

The press do not persecute and intimate victims of crime. Sadly, our history is littered with tragic stories of children taken and murdered, and their families have continued their lives, devastated, but with the privacy they asked for.

The problem the McCanns have (apart from megalomania) is their inability to accept that the public just don't like them and their constant whining about what a bad deal they have had ain't helping. The public know who has had a bad deal - I remember seeing the Ben Needham tweeter asking for donations for a PC. Yet keep the sympathy and cash (£4m+ to their private company) with Gerry and Kate.

Apologies this is turning into a blog!

Poe wrote:
Lawyers are expensive.

It would have cost far more than £55,000 to have been taken to court. Carter Ruck don't care, they'd get paid either way unless the case had got to court and the McCanns lost.

So everyone's a winner; Murdoch saves on legal fees, Carter Ruck are paid and the McCanns save face.

It's just a shame that they didn't get the McCanns to sign a non-disclosure agreement so we wouldn't be subjected to Gerry running off any whining to another paper.

I agree, but I don't think all parties are winners. The Sunday Times still had to pay out 55K, which in the grand scheme of things is a paltry amount, but is still £55,000 more than zero.

I wonder how Murdoch and his cohorts must be feeling about Gerry McCann today, after giving him a whole day of sympathetic (and biased) coverage, only to have the big man slating his paper in The Guardian (not Murdoch's favourite newspaper), and probably on Radio 4 today. And this story has made the BBC news, unlike the trolls story.

Cristobell wrote:Well first of all, I'm surprised the McCanns had to hire lawyers Carter Ruck, I thought they had them on a permanent retainer.

Also very strange how the big bully media has given them £55k from the one hand, and dedicated a day's news to them from the other - wonder if it was all part of the deal?  The McCanns firmly believe that the more they get their story (and faces) out there, the more chance they have of turning public opinion back in their favour.  There is a certain glee in that for some of us because we can see that they are in fact digging themselves into an even deeper hole.  

Yesterday, we had a day's whitewashing from Sky News, almost every hour, on the hour, possibly accompanied by a subliminal 'you will believe' message to further hypnotise the especially dozy.  Then we had the imposing presence of Jim Gamble ramming home the menace and bullying message just to make it absolutely clear, that they will go after anyone questioning the official story.  How many perfectly innocent people with legitimate questions about Madeleine's disappearance been scared away by these shock tactics?  The message was clear.  Anyone tweeting negatively about the McCanns will come to the attention of the police. We are all under surveillance because we don't believe the ridiculous abduction story.

And just to hammer the message home, Gerry and Kate have again received a substantial payment from a UK newspaper, said by them to have been donated to a charity (which one?) and they are back up on their pedestal demanding the newspaper industry be gagged.  The only people who want newspapers gagged are those with something to hide.  What kind of police state are we turning into where journalists are imprisoned and every story has to be run by the subject, before it can go to press?

Its not the tories demanding the media gags, they have running the gauntlet with press barons since time began, its New Labour and the increasingly more sinister Hacked Off.  A public that votes to gag the free press, is a public walking blindly into police controlled State.  

A free press comes with good and bad, those used to the limelight, or born to it, treat it with the same attitude as the Windsors, 'Don't Complain', Don't Explain'.  Those who choose to put their private lives in the public domain, again and again, invite public comment, especially those who pose for 'Hello' style photoshoots and tell the world 'I couldn't make love to my husband'.  The McCanns make themselves the news, ergo comment will follow.  

The press do not persecute and intimate victims of crime.  Sadly, our history is littered with tragic stories of children taken and murdered, and their families have continued their lives, devastated, but with the privacy they asked for.  

The problem the McCanns have (apart from megalomania) is their inability to accept that the public just don't like them and their constant whining about what a bad deal they have had ain't helping.  The public know who has had a bad deal - I remember seeing the Ben Needham tweeter asking for donations for a PC.  Yet keep the sympathy and cash (£4m+ to their private company) with Gerry and Kate.

Apologies this is turning into a blog!

Agreed - and you've said it better than I can. Lest we forget...what was the first thing the McCanns did upon discovering the disappearance of their child? They contacted the media. Then they courted the media. They invited the media to follow their every move in Portugal. They used the media to raise their profiles and to keep Madeleine in the news. They hired a spokesman.

I find it rather difficult to reconcile the McCanns now claiming that their privacy has been invaded and the press needs to be muzzled, when they did everything they could do use the media to their advantage 7 years ago, and continued to do so until it became evident that they were no longer the poor darlings of the press, and there were serious questions about their credibility.

wlbts wrote:

Poe wrote:
Lawyers are expensive.

It would have cost far more than £55,000 to have been taken to court. Carter Ruck don't care, they'd get paid either way unless the case had got to court and the McCanns lost.

So everyone's a winner; Murdoch saves on legal fees, Carter Ruck are paid and the McCanns save face.

It's just a shame that they didn't get the McCanns to sign a non-disclosure agreement so we wouldn't be subjected to Gerry running off any whining to another paper.

I agree, but I don't think all parties are winners.  The Sunday Times still had to pay out 55K, which in the grand scheme of things is a paltry amount, but is still £55,000 more than zero.

I wonder how Murdoch and his cohorts must be feeling about Gerry McCann today, after giving him a whole day of sympathetic (and biased) coverage, only to have the big man slating his paper in The Guardian (not Murdoch's favourite newspaper), and probably on Radio 4 today.  And this story has made the BBC news, unlike the trolls story.

Re: the bolded bit.

I said that the Sunday Times are winners because even if they had successfully defended themselves in court their legal fees would have been far more than the £55,000 (and possibly Carter Rucks fees) that they ended up paying.

You can see it as a loss but it was the least worse loss possible (if you see what I mean ...I know what I mean anyway).

Edited to add:

From a pessimist's point of view, everyone lost: the McCanns didn't get millions, Carter Ruck didn't get their court fees & Murdoch had to cough up.

Ultimately though, it doesn't actually matter what the public think, if Operation Grange and the PJ can build enough solid evidence against the McCanns, it will be the end for them..no rioting in the streets as Kate imagined, just standard police and court procedure. No matter what PR they put in place, it cannot stop the investigation, because there is no way that DCI Redwood is going to say in light of this development "oh well, we'd better come to the conclusion that the parents want, lest we upset them" They have been tasked with solving a crime, and it is my belief that they intend to do just that and if there is evidence of the parents involvement then the police will act on it.

And it is my belief that the public are fed up with the McCanns anyway, this saga has gone on far too long, the economy is still shaky and most people are just getting by, there is worldwide conflict and an ever present threat of terrorism, combined with growing concern about mass immigration and many other day to day issues being faced by the general population. No one really cares about a couple of parents, who through their own negligence "lost" one of their children..yes they are concerned about the fate of the child, but whilst they may have a certain degree of sympathy for the McCanns, you can be sure that will evaporate into disgust if the police can prove that they were indeed involved in Madeleine's disappearance and have subsequently lied and evaded justice over the last few years, whilst simultaneously bullying and litigating against anyone who has dared to question them.

I'm still of the opinion that the current investigation will not be a whitewash, as per my above statement about the current situation in the UK and elsewhere, leads me to believe that it would a pointless and costly exercise to do otherwise. So I do believe that perhaps all of this activity is pre-empting something else imo

As one of my Facebook friends once commented on one of my many McCann posts - 'For gods sake, just arrest them or give them another child, anything to make them **** off'. Most people I know have lost interest in and patience with the McCanns years ago. Gerry's latest media campaign just irritates people even more.

Just posting this for posterity..



Kate and Gerry McCann criticise press after libel payout

Kate and Gerry McCann said the allegations were "grotesque and utterly false"




The parents of missing Madeleine McCann have said press regulation is still not working, after receiving £55,000 in libel damages from the Sunday Times.

The payout came over claims they had withheld details about their daughter's disappearance from the authorities.

Kate and Gerry McCann said the paper did not provide them with a proper opportunity to comment and chose not to publish key parts of their response.

The Sunday Times said it had agreed a settlement with Mr and Mrs McCann.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

"It has been a significant period since the Leveson Inquiry finished and I don't see any change in culture.”

End Quote Gerry McCann
Continued failure
The McCanns said the allegations were "grotesque and utterly false", and in effect suggested they had deliberately hindered the search for their daughter Madeleine, who went missing in Portugal in 2007.

Last December the paper printed an apology which the McCanns said was on an inside page and inadequate.

After instructing lawyers to sue for damages they received the payout which will be donated to two charities for missing people and sick children.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr McCann said the story "should never have been published", saying his family had given the Sunday Times a statement to that effect when the allegations were first put to them.

"This damaged us, it damaged the reputation of the [Madeleine's Fund] fund and it quite potentially can damage the search for Madeleine," he added.



He said it showed the continued failure of the press - which Mr McCann said was causing damage to ordinary people on a "daily basis" - to act responsibly.

"It has been a significant period since the Leveson Inquiry finished and I don't see any change in culture," Mr McCann added.
'Industry poodle'
The allegations in the Sunday Time were made at a time when the paper was arguing there was no need for the independent regulation proposed by the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.

The McCanns described the new Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), which started its work last month as the successor to the Press Complaints Commission, as the "latest industry poodle".

It is not the first time Mr and Mrs McCann have taken legal action against the press.

Kate and Gerry McCann gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry in November 2011

In 2008, they accepted £550,000 libel damages and front-page apologies from Express Newspapers over allegations they were responsible for Madeleine's death.

The McCanns have been prominent in the Hacked Off group which campaigns for press accountability following the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
Private diary
At the Leveson Inquiry, the McCanns were critical of their treatment by the press, saying they were left distraught by suggestions they were responsible for Madeleine's death.

Mr McCann told the inquiry many of the stories were untruthful, sinister or, he believed, made up.

Mrs McCann said seeing her private diary published in the News of the World made her feel "totally violated".

Lord Leveson's report recommended an independent, self-regulatory press watchdog backed by legislation.

The three main Westminster parties agreed a Royal Charter that established a panel to independently verify a new regulator, although Ipso has not sought recognition from this.

A rival independent self-regulator, Impress, has been set up by a group of high-profile campaigners with the aim of becoming compliant with Leveson's requirements.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29470599