THE MEDIA campaign to find Madeleine McCann will be scaled down and take on a “low-key format”, Gerry McCann has told the Edinburgh Film Festival.
He acknowledged he and Kate had initially sought publicity but feels there is now a lack of control and that the family had deliberately tried to withdraw from the spotlight.
“Unfortunately the human interest side of this is enormous now and that’s been very difficult.”
They have made no final decision on when to return home but Gerry McCann said he thought staying in Portugal might have become counter-productive.
“But the very real difficulty is the emotion of leaving Portugal as a family of four when we went there as a family of five.”
After speaking at the festival Gerry McCann wrote on his blog: “It is difficult to explain why Madeleine’s disappearance has generated so much media coverage and why it has been so sustained.
“I am certain that the coverage would not have been nearly as great if this had happened 10 years ago.”
At first they decided to make as many people as possible aware that Madeleine was missing quickly.
“Family members did frequent TV interviews and friends distributed images of Madeline to news outlets. My sister started the electronic campaign proper by sending a chain email with a poster of Madeleine, which was downloaded by thousands of people.”
He said the family fully expected the media attention to die down after the first few weeks,
But they soon realised “much of the coverage was pure speculation”, often negative and unhelpful.
Do you have a view on this story? Email: editor@portugalresident.com
