A few thoughts about some British journalists, child abduction experts and idiots

ﯯ뻻 Misplaced trust led to Madeleine's betrayal ﯯ뻻

ﯯ뻻  Jan Moir - The Telegraph 8.05.2007 ﯯ뻻

"Gerry and Kate McCann had every reason to trust [...] that the
Portuguese police would do everything to help bring her back to
safety. Yet with the best will in the world, it is becoming obvious
that this has not happened. Even if one factors in cultural
differences and the inexplicable burden of the Portuguese secrecy of
justice law, which prohibits even the parents of the missing being
given details of evidence collected, it is clear that the police
operation has been flawed and flat-footed from the start.
[...] At a belated and chaotic press conference on Monday, the police
were, if anything, belligerent instead of supportive, with an
uncomfortable whisper of southern Mediterranean machismo sweeping
through their statements and body language. "We are not magicians,"
said Olegario Sousa, the officer leading the investigation. No,
senhor, but perhaps you are clowns instead."

(End of quote)

ﯯ뻻  Gazeta Digital - Online News Digest ﯯ뻻

Editorial

A few thoughts about some British journalists, child abduction experts
and idiots

Part of the British media is giving an image of the Portuguese police
- and of the Portuguese people - as a lost Neanderthal tribe that
survived the Ice Age and is still living in a remote corner of Europe,
with its primitive traditions and culture.
Some British journalists, reporting from Algarve, behave as if they
were following a National Geographic expedition to study the not-so-
long-ago-cannibal tribes in the deep jungles of New-Guinea.
Of course, they do it with the usual British refinement, putting a
word here, a word there, an apparently simple question in the middle
and, at the end, touching phrases like "Madeleine parents went to the
Church to pray for her daughter and maybe, also for those trying to
find her."
Of course. With so much incompetence from the Portuguese police, only
God and a miracle can take the investigation to a good end.
They wrote between the lines, creating the idea that sheer
incompetence and shocking incapacity are trademarks of our police
force and CID investigators.
They brought with them the "real experts". Some of those "experts"
seem to me a couple of funny characters, who have a main purpose on
this trip to Portugal: to put a show in front of the cameras of TV
station's hungry for audience at any price and explain how incompetent
Portuguese police is, how things should have been done if there was a
efficient police in the field - British police, of course - when
Madeleine disappeared.
They also explain how stubborn the incompetent Portuguese police are,
as they are not willing to follow their advice and accept their orders
and guide-lines to do a better job.
One of the main points British journalists have been talking about is
this absurd Portuguese law that forbidden police to give to the public
details of ongoing investigations.
Evidence of the professional capacity of some British journalists
covering this sad event is the fact that it took same time for them to
find a basic thing, easy to ask to any CID officer - and almost all
of them can speak a reasonable English, with the CID officers based in
Algarve having a very good knowledge, as they work on a area with more
foreigners that Portuguese.
That basic thing is the fact that Portuguese Law doesn't allow police
to release details of an ongoing investigation. They can do it, in two
exceptional circumstances.
First, in case there is a situation of risk or danger to the public
and the society. It can be done when an armed criminal is on the run,
after killing somebody, and may be a danger to the public and kill
again. So, in this case, Portuguese police gives a public warning
about that criminal, a physical description, if they have it, and so
on.
Second circumstance, when the release of those details is considered
essential to help save or protect the life of somebody that is in
danger. It happens when old people, with health problems like
Alzheimer, vanish from its home, for example, and the police send
their photos to newspapers, ask for information about the missing
person.
I must say that I was shocked when I realized British journalists were
criticising the fact that police hasn't yet made public the alleged
sketch they have, from the potential abductor.
In my opinion, doing this has a good probability of being the same as
passing a death sentence to Madeleine. The abductor can be a cool-
blooded man, a professional, working for an international organized
crime network; a sexual pervert, a paedophile that has done something
similar before; or a woman with psychological problems, not able to
have children (in Portugal, we had two or three cases like this,
recently).
If the abductor is an organized crime professional or a sexual
pervert, he is on the run, trying to leave to country or hiding and
waiting for a better opportunity to escape.
Don't forget the possibility that, one hour after the child
disappeared, she could be already in Spain. And there is not only one
road from Aldeia da Luz to Spain. There is one mains road and five or
six secondary roads.
But if he is still in Portugal, and in at both situations above
referred, he should be taking a fundamental precaution: hiding
carefully the child, because her face is well known of every
Portuguese (and easy to spot, as we are a dark-haired people and
blonde children like Madeleine are very rare).
But he is not afraid of showing his face, or being seen by other
people. Because he has been watching the news, carefully and he
believes, as most probable, that police has no clue or tip about who
he is, what colour is hair, how tall, if he is skinny or fat, long
hair or bald.
But if he watches his face on a TV screen, either a photo of him, or a
sketch that is so close that allows people to recognize him, he will
act immediately.
He will do the first thing every criminal does, when he discovers
police is on his trail, knows his identity, his name, his face, his
last address: he will try to get rid of all evidence that can connect
him to the crime.
And the only - it seems, as I don't know any detail of the ongoing
investigation - and strongest evidence of the crime he committed, is
having the little Madeleine with him. He could do it on two different
ways. One, leaving the child, alive and well, near some place where
somebody could find her quickly. The other option is frightening.
I've been a journalist for the last 25 years. Now, I'm working at
home, as an online freelance journalist. I've been watching, listening
and reading everything I can about Madeleine's abduction, since the
first moment. I'm sitting at my desk, watching Sky News and BBC, Sic
Notícias (a 24-hour news Portuguese channel), listening to the radio
and checking news in the Net, every 15 minutes, with my RSS's.
When I saw and heard, on TV, a British journalist giving some details
about the physical description of the abductor, I said to myself:
"This  ******* idiot is doing the worst thing he could to Madeleine."
I hope that, in spite of the lousy job some of the British journalists
are doing, in Algarve, Madeleine can be with their parents, soon.
And I hope that, next time, British journalists, before coming to
Portugal to report, try to do some fact-finding, using the Net. We,
Portuguese, are no more living in caverns, or dressing with animal
skins and hunting with arrows to have our daily meals.
Next time, call some British expatriates living here and ask them
those basic things that took you so long to discover. Call the editor
of "The Resident", an English language newspaper from Algarve.(There
are five other English language publications in Portugal, names and
contacts are here.) Talk with some Portuguese journalists. We can
speak, and we use computers (typewriters are a thing of the past..).
Most of us have a good command of English, French and Spanish (I,
myself, can even speak a little bit of Cantonese...)

Paulo Reis
Journalist (Professional Card nº 734)
pjcv.reis@gmail.com
URL: http://gazetadigital.blogspot.com/

PS - Forget to mention: our country is also a member of the European
Union...
ﯯ뻻ﯯ뻻ﯯ뻻ﯯ뻻ﯯ뻻ﯯ뻻ﯯ뻻

date: 9 May 2007 12:18:22 -0700 author: unknown