Gerry McCann, father to Madeleine McCann has issued a call for increased oversight for the UK media, detailing how intense press coverage made him feel like he was being "suffocated and buried".
A Family Tormented by Press "Abuses"
According to Gerry McCann, his family was deeply affected by press "intrusions" and that the media had "frequently disrupted" the search for answers regarding his daughter's disappearance in 2007.
He emphasized that the intrusion took a "significant emotional cost" on his family. "We faced ongoing coverage and misleading headlines for over a year that compelled us to take legal action to stop it," he explained.
"We are lucky. We survived. We received tremendous support. However, I assure you, there were times where I felt like I was drowning, and it was the media, primarily, not the situation we were in," he recounted.
An Appeal for Revive Press Regulation Review
McCann and his wife, Kate, are among a group of people who have endorsed a letter calling on ministers to restart the second part of the Leveson inquiry, which was due to examine the relationship between the media and the police.
He expressed that it was unacceptable that more than a year on, press regulation was "no longer a priority". He said that his family had been victims of "monstering" by parts of the media and that the press was "camped" outside his home for an extended period after Madeleine went missing.
Recounting the Intrusion
Detailing the events, he said: "Reporters arriving at our home, photographers literally ramming their cameras against our car window, when we had two-year-old twins in the back who were frightened, and how distressing that is for you as a parent."
"It's the misleading narratives. It's the fabrication of stories to fit the agenda, rather than the facts, which ruins lives," he emphasized.
The Need for Tougher Oversight and Redress
He said the conduct demonstrated why there needed to be tougher press regulation. "At night, as we prepared for bed, we'd put on the news, and there'd be splash stories about ourselves and what supposedly happened," he told.
"That almost pulls you under, and you can see how people succumb to it and think they can't get out of it. It's so damaging, and we need that protection. People deserve recourse. And at the minute, for most of the major publishers, there is little accountability," he asserted.
Government Position and Evolving News Environment
The Culture Secretary said that a second phase of the inquiry had been rejected and that the media landscape was now profoundly changed.
"We agree that the situation has changed dramatically since the second part of Leveson was proposed: the public is now more likely to get their news online from a whole variety of sources, which has thrown up new and different challenges," they stated.
It was also noted that weighing the rights of victims with the need for a free press was a "complex balance to get right," but acknowledged that "reform is required in this area".
An Enduring Search for Closure
The child went missing from a family vacation apartment in 2007 at the age of three. Gerry McCann said that it was "deeply disturbing" how the press had frequently obstructed with the investigation.
"Leaked information which should have been confidential... This meant a potential culprit, you knew a lot more than you should have done," he noted.
Speaking about hope, he said the hope he would find his daughter was "small but still alive". "We hope to find her alive, but we need to establish the facts and see justice served, and others are at risk while whoever is responsible is free," he affirmed.