Crime and The Media

This morning we heard that the mother of Madeleine McCann, the missing girl who was snatched from her parents’ holiday home in Portugal last Thursday, has made a desperate appeal to whoever is responsible not to hurt her daughter.  The British public take it for granted that the Police use the media, but what they don’t understand is that it’s a necessary relationship between the two that could generate a conclusion to an investigation. In cases such as Madeleine McCann’s, our legal system can oxygenate publicity enabling the public to know what’s going on step by step and hopefully turn up a lead.  But in Portugal, their legal system does not allow for this relationship between media and police and therefore there has been a lot of speculation and misunderstanding of events leading up to the suspected kidnap.  It’s appalling for the tabloid media in the UK, as they can’t get any real information on this case, and in truth, the media does play an important part in keeping the hunt for killers, kidnappers and criminals alive, especially with programmes like Crimewatch which is dedicated to this alone.  In some cases, of course, those relationships between the police and the media are abused, and perhaps this is why in other countries that kind of relationship is illegal.  Whatever happens, the parents’ tearful pleas to the public today through the media makes it feel a lot more raw and intense and it plays on everyone’s fears about those individuals who prey on children.   Never under estimate the steatlhfull activities of the various PR folk littered around the constabularies in the UK.