Kate and Gerry McCann to receive an apology

[lemonstartree]

From the express group - about the false and 'grossly defamatory' reports published after Madeleine went missing.

Good. IMHO. Good

and it does seem slightly odd that they have an apology to the McCann's on the top half of the page, and then spend the second half of the page dragging Heather Mills through the dirt

nice

I live very near the police chief's 'mistress'. There were loads of men lurking in the road last week,I wondered what was goingon. Then realised they were journalists. Crazy.

I do hate the "witchhunt" school of journalism. There are so many genuinely evil things that go on in the world that get unreported.

Sadly it will be far too late.
An apology is not enough - there should be sackings.
They give proper journalists a bad name.

Good.

Much overdue - there hasn't been a day since Madeline went missing that I haven't thought about her and Im not connected in any way to her family. It has occupied my thoughts constantly.

There is demand for the witch hunt - as seen on the MN threads. Some people really did seem to believe that from the comfort of their sofas they could identify the guilty party and were justified in baying for their blood.

The certainty and lack of logic I saw in real life made me lose faith in the jury system.

These papers make you sick, the only reason for there apology is because Gerry & Kate started legal proceedings & when they tabloids actually say in front of there legal team they realised there whole case was flawed because what they wrote was not "fact" it was "gossip"

Gerry & Kate would have won so for all parties it works out alot cheaer to come to a settlement out of court.

Apparently being £550,000 to the find Madeleine fund!

Good on them, these tabloids make you sick they need to start getting the facts before printing utter rubbish!

Here Here Upwind - 2 of my four sons have died and I know just by looking at Madelines parents faces that they DID NOT do anything to her. Their eyes are 'empty and dead' they could not have gone all this time without breaking down if they were guilty.

I was interviewed for hours after my first son died and he had congenital heart abnormalities fgs. After two hours I started wondering if I had done something. That was 26 years ago and I still wake up in the middle of a re-run nightmare of that day.

shabster

The comments that Kate has made on their website about her agony when thinking about what her daughter may have gone through just make me want to weep.

I was very lucky to get two holidays last year in Rhodes, Greece.

After a few days I realised I was searching every childs face that wasn't obviously Greek. When I mentioned this to one of our friends she looked shocked and said 'I've been doing the same thing.'

My heart goes out to her family - BUT what the hell would you say to make them feel better???

about time. But let's not forget they have only done this because they have been forced to by the very real threat of a successful libel and defamation case. They haven't done it as a good will gesture or volte face. Half a mill is small change in Richard 'porn baron' Desmond's personal wealth anyway.

Total scum, parasite ambulance chasing bastards. No expletives can encapsulate their vile despicable characters, both Desmond and the trash who write this shite.

Why does everything involved in this case revolve around money? Wasn't the apology enough?

If money had to rear its head again surely a better place would have been that missing and exploited children charity they were banging on about last year? Help more than one child.

I guess hiring those top end lawyers really did pay off.

Most stuff in this strange world we live in revolves around money I'm afraid.

Like the Crown Prosecution service who dropped the case against the man who knocked down and killed my child - who declared 'its not in the public interest to prosecute further' to which the arresting officer told us 'So sorry but it's all to do with money.' Probably the one sentence that has stuck in my head for the last 16 years.

. While I do think that trial by media is wrong, I do think it's just a bit too coincidental that Madeleine Mccann is suddenly back on the front pages at a time when Shannon Matthews has so dramatically taken the spotlight away from her.

And agree the money shouldn't be going to the find madeleine fund - it should be going to find all missing children.

that's quite cynical wannabe! Surely it's big news today because it happened today?

maybe, but it does seem coincidental that the day after Shannon Matthews disappeared a sighting of Madeleine was reported, even though the sighting had happened about a week before, and now the day after someone is charged with Shannon Matthews' kidnapping this front page apology appears...

I do wonder though whether this will be the end of the Madeleine publicity. Because while it's obviously morally wrong to publish anything defamatory against anyone, there's a saying that no publicity is bad publicity, and all those artacles did still keep Madeleine in the spotlight. Now no newspaper is going to want to print anything for fear of being sued.

Oh Shabster, I am so very sorry. My worst nightmare. Horrible. Glad you found the strength to keep on.

Thank you for your kind words Q - after the loss of a child you sink or swim and Im not going to sink. Lost 2 of our 4 sons - the other a 7 month old boy twin with heart problems. I dont care if Madelines story is on every page of every newspaper every single day of the week.

She has occupied part of my mind since she went missing. I cant imagine not knowing what has happened to your child. Dont care if anybody thinks my feelings are 'over the top' just impossible to explain to anyone who hasn't gone through it how mindblowing it is to loose your child.

Desmond is an idiot who thinks you can run a newspaper without employing enough journalists. He demands that people recycle stories from other publications without checking, because it saves him money. What's more, the stupid man sacked all the subs - the people who check for libel and factual accuracy, amongst other things.

With any luck, this will have sent a message to media owners that you can't cut corners. Doubt it will stem the tide, though.

I don't suppose they'll be apologising for ruining the reputation of the third arguido - the poor guy they dragged thru' the mud initially, as he does not have a fund to pay for top lawyers.
So the fund (not a charity) is now topped up again. It would have been nice if missing childrens charities could have benefited.

The "Find Madeleine Fund" is a missing children's charity to all intents and purposes, MrsGofG. The alternative to the money being paid to the fund was for it to be paid directly to the McCanns - who are the defamed parties, after all. It's only right that the damages should be paid into the fund to find their daughter.

I think the McCanns got a much rougher time than Robert Murat did at the hands of the press.

Makes me wonder if one of the reasons Shannon matthews case wasn;t plastered all over the papers, as people on Mn kept complaining it wasn;t there enough, was linked to this case going through and the papers knowing they'd have this apolgy to do.

They could have had a field day with the Shannon case and didn't. Coincidence?

I think robert murat has had just as rough a time if not more so actually. Because nothing positive was ever posted about him. nothing.

gerry mccann has gone back to his job/businessmen have given money to the find madeleine fund/they continue to receive support.

But Robert Murat has only ever been referred to as the suspect, and yet Kate and Gerry are also still suspects.

After about three months the only news being published about the mccanns was hearsay and speculation. That's wrong, of course it is, but if all that hadn't been published, Madeleine would have dropped out of the headlines a lot sooner than she did. And now I think that this will be ehe end of any Madeleine publicity, because the papers won't dare print anything any more.

It just sickens me to think that the evil bastard who did this to this family is out there, watching the news, reading websites like this whilst they have to plod on doing their best day after day.