The BBC are reporting this. Far be it for me to tell the BBC how to do its job. However, I challenge the report. I find nothing wrong with the headline, nor with the opening paragraph. Full marks for reporting missing rather than abducted. However, "four-year-old vanished in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on 3 May". This is incorrect, Madeleine was only 3 when she vanished. If, for example, she died on that day, or even sometime the day before, then Madeleine would still only be 3. It was the McCanns who added the extra birthday, making Madeleine 4, had she been alive to celebrate it. The reports of the sniffer dogs smelling death, if correct, would rule out this. So, for the sake of clarity, can the BBC and all other media organisations please stick to the factual age when Madeleine went missing?
"Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, went missing from the Algarve holiday apartment while her parents ate in a nearby restaurant". We do not know that Madeleine went missing at that time. All we do know is that Madeleine is missing. It was Kate McCann who declared that Madeleine went missing during that time. Can the BBC please not keep misleading people?
"The McCanns have backed a scheme aimed at letting parents and staff know what steps to take as soon as a child goes missing on holiday.
Code Madeleine is based on Code Adam in the US, named after abducted six-year-old Adam Walsh".
This appears as though the BBC endorses not only what the McCanns are doing but also the scheme. Until the McCanns are in the clear, I feel that the BBC should make it clear that it does not endorse this. A Code Madeleine at this time is not appropriate, simply because it has been suggested by the McCanns and would be tainted if the McCanns are themselves suspects. By this term suspects, I do not refer to them as police suspects, that is a matter for the police. I refer to them as suspects based purely on the facts. Surely, the McCanns have some explaining to do?
Hat-Tip to Zinzin for the BBC report.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
7 comments:
I think the number one rule of Code Madeleine should be never leave your children unsupervised/unattended FULL STOP.
I believe the Portuguese police are ensuring they can completely eliminate Robert Murat from their inqueries before they go after the main suspects in this case.
Suspects who have managed to wrap themselves up in a media hype'd cloak of self-righteousness, that they will have to be handled with kid gloves.
But at least the MSM are beginning to wake up to the facts in this case.
I recently started reading your blog - thank you for reminding the press about professional standards which are oh, so lacking in their coverage of this case.
Please keep up the good work!
Seems that the PJ and UK police have been observing the McCann's every movement
Another Translation from Astro
this morning in Correio da Manha:
Madeleine McCann Case
PJ searches Maddie’s jeep thoroughly
There are at least three hours that are blank in the day of the crime: between 6 and 9 p.m., “nobody saw Madeleine alive except for her parents”. The last step the Policia Judiciaria made, yesterday afternoon, was to collect residues from the jeep that the McCann couple used to travel in the Algarve, and send them to the Scientific Police Lab, a source with the investigation told CM.
(the rest of the article will be available online in the early afternoon)
_________________
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915
He has also translated this longer article linked to by Anon 8.40
this morning in Diario de Noticias:
Judiciaria has known for a month that Maddie was killed
Madeleine McCann’s parents are suspected of being involved
Policia Judiciaria (PJ) has known for a month that Madeleine McCann was killed on the night of May 3, in the apartment of the Ocean Club resort, in Praia da Luz, and definitely abandoned the abduction theory. On the other hand, the suspicions that always fell on Maddie’s parents since she disappeared, are now growing stronger.
The revelation was made to DN yesterday by a source that is connected to the process, which underlined the fact that Judiciaria and the english police have been watching the McCann couple from the beginning, giving them complete freedom of movement so they could keep a closer eye on them, both during their stay in the Algarve and during their trips to various countries, where they launched campaigns to find Madeleine.
The certainty that Maddie died, either by homicide or negligence, is based on a new clue, and triggered the searches that were made by PJ at Praia da Luz, approximately two weeks ago, and also motivated the arrival of british police agents, who are in Praia da Luz to support the portuguese police’s investigations, helped by sniffer dogs that are specially trained to detect cadavers.
PJ, who have always defended that it is in this area that “the key to the entire enigna” resides, then proceeded investigating new clues and discreetly heard the locals, crossing informations, namely close to the Ocean Club, and finally ended up asking for support from the english police, to go back to the apartment from where Madeleine disappeared.
On the other hand, according to information that were collected by DN, the mother of the british child, Kate McCann, upon noticing her daughter was absent, returned to the restaurant where she was dining with her husband and several friends, screaming: "They' ve taken her!". Shortly afterwards, a tourist who was spending his holidays in an apartment close to the McCann family’s apartment also heard Madeleine’s mother screaming: “We failed!”, as a sort of self-criticism. In the inquiries that were made on the child’s parents, family and friends, a few days later, at the Criminal Investigation Department of PJ in Portimao, contradictory versions were presented, which contributed to enhance the doubts about the abduction theory that had been admitted by the investigators.
The investigators continue to concentrate their attention on the McCann’s “family and friends circle”, a police source confirmed to DN. According to the same source, some friends of the couple that spent their holidays in Praia da Luz have been under police surveillance in England and will be called back to Portugal for new inquisitions at the PJ.
‘New’ suspect
PJ revealed yesterday that there is a new suspect. According to the data that was revealed, it’s a man in his 40’s, approximately 1,70/1,75 m tall, with dark skin. As DN could find out, he is of african origin and english nationality. His description matches the first drawing that PJ made early into their investigation, according to the statements of locals who, at that time, said they saw a man, on the night of May 3, carrying a child that was apparently asleep, and who avoided crossing ways with the people who were walking in the area, close to the apartment where the family was spending their vacations.
The hypothesis that is now being considered is that this man was the same who was seen in the company of Murat right after Maddie vanished, close to the journalists and close to the apartment.
Yet, according to witnesses, he was also seen before the disappearance from the resort, close to the McCann family. Right after Madeleine disappeared, he was again seen and photographed near the journalists. As DN could find out, the suspect is being closely watched by PJ, who control all of his movements, making registries.
(the rest of the article is about Murat seeking compensation)
_________________
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes) Valley of Fear, 1915
barnacle bill: Certainly not for 3 hours of drink and meal, at least for the two who were still alive at the time...
I agree that they are eliminating Robert Murat from their inquiries. I blogged about the McCanns being the prime suspects quite awhile ago. I am glad that the mainstream media is beginning to catch up.
anonymous 8.38: Yes, they do appear to have forgotten about maintaining standards. No wonder some get called the gutter press...
I intend to do just that.
anonymous 8.40: Thanks for the link.
anonymous 9.33: Thanks for the update and links.
The reporting on this story is BIZARRE.
The story in broadsheet Diario de Noticias saying that the parents were suspects, and that family friends were under surveillance has been picked up by Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL0720449020070807
But they've deliberately omitted the bit about parents being suspects, despite covering everything else in the story, in fact they are still going on about the parents' 'campaign'.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, another wire service has at least covered the story properly, http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/news/article_1339775.php/Parents_suspected_in_Madeleine_case_daily_claims
Will this story now be picked up by any UK newspaper or the BBC? A reputable news agency has put out this story, will the press continue to ignore it?
Will we get the first admission that just possibly 3 months of smearing Robert Murat it might be fair to report that the McCanns are suspects?
I wouldn't bet on it.
sorry, here's that DPA link in clickable form.
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