DEFAMATION specialists in the region have commented on the outcome of a case bought by the parents of Madeline McCann which resulted in four national newspapers issuing front page apologies for their coverage of the toddler’s disappearance.
The Daily Star, Daily Star Sunday, and the Daily and Sunday Express all ran the apologies last week following a hearing in the High Court. A sum of £550,000 was made to the Find Madeline fund as part of the settlement.
More than 100 articles published in the Express group’s papers were found to be defamatory and harmful to the couple’s reputation. The pieces appeared after Portuguese detectives last September named the couple as “arguidos”, or official suspects, in their daughter’s disappearance from their hotel room in Praia da Luz last May. Their legal team argued that the tone of coverage in the Express Group papers implied they may have been involved, and that this was defamatory.
David Rawlinson, partner at Halliwells, wrote an opinion piece for LDP Legal in October last year predicting the likelihood of a defamation suit being brought by the McCanns in the light of unscrupulous newspaper stories.
He said: “Clearly, the McCann’s lawyers have been hard at work and last week two national newspapers ran front pages apologies and accepted that what they wrote was defamatory of the McCanns.
“Although the McCanns remain official suspects in the criminal investigation in Portugal – it was their being named as such which sparked the change in tone in the English press and the lash of what have now been acknowledged as defamatory articles – there seems never to have been any real evidence to implicate them in Madeleine’s disappearance.
“Their lawyers will have had quite a job to sift and analyse all the many press and media reports in order to target those which were clearly defamatory of Kate and Gerry – those which were not caused in terms which made it absolutely clear that what was being said was mere allegation.
“Then they will have had to put together detailed letters of claim which would seek undertakings not to repeat the allegations, which are likely to have been given; retractions and apologies, which clearly have been given; compensation for damage to their reputations, which has been paid to the Madeleine fund; and legal costs, which no doubt have all been paid. All these will have been the subject of lengthy negotiation to avoid the matters getting to court.”
Mark Manley, commercial litigation partner and specialist in defamation at Brabners Chaffe Street said: “Two front page apologies in newspapers from the same group in one week is a first. It signifies the seriousness of the allegations and that only front page apologies would suffice for the McCanns.
“Where the Express and Star went too far was in running a whole series of articles which conveyed a clear imputation of guilt. It’s hardly any wonder the McCanns were upset. Didn’t they have enough tragedy and heartbreak in their lives with the disappearance of Maddie without the British media accusing them so directly?
“Will it stop the press in its tracks? I very much doubt it. On the front page of the Star [on the same day], underneath the apology to the McCann’s, is an article about police “quizzing” missing Shannon Matthew’s mum.
“Responsible journalism might be what we’d all like to see – but it doesn’t always sell papers and I doubt the McCann apologies will do much to cause Fleet Street to put the brakes on.”