The McCann family Parent Demands Tougher Media Regulation Following Accounts of Media "Tormenting".

Gerry McCann, father to Madeleine McCann has issued a call for greater scrutiny of the UK media, describing how intense press coverage made him feel that he was being "suffocated and buried".

A Family Tormented by Press "Abuses"

According to Gerry McCann, his family was deeply affected by press "intrusions" and that the media had "repeatedly interfered with" the search for answers regarding his daughter's disappearance in 2007.

He emphasized that the media attention exacted a "significant emotional cost" on his family. "We faced sustained interest and inaccurate reports for 15 months or more that forced us to take legal action to stop it," he explained.

"We are lucky. We survived. We had strong support. However, I assure you, there were times where I felt like I was drowning, and it was the media, mainly, not the situation we were in," he stated.

An Appeal for Restart Press Regulation Review

The McCanns are among dozens of individuals who have endorsed a letter asking the government to reopen the second phase of the Leveson inquiry, which was intended to examine the dynamic between the media and the police.

McCann said it was unacceptable that over a year later, press regulation was "not being prioritized". He said that his family had been victims of "monstering" by parts of the media and that the press was "posted" outside his home for an extended period after the disappearance.

Recounting the Harassment

Detailing the events, he said: "Reporters arriving at our home, photographers pushing their cameras against our car window, when we had two-year-old twins in the back who were terrified, and how upsetting that is for you as a parent."

"It's the half-truths. It's the invention of stories to suit a narrative, rather than reality, which causes immense harm," he stated.

The Need for Tougher Regulation and Redress

He said the conduct showed why there needed to be tougher press regulation. "At night, as we prepared for bed, we'd put on the news, and there'd be major reports about ourselves and what supposedly happened," he described.

"That can drag you down, and you can see how people succumb to it and think they can't get out of it. The harm is profound, and we need that protection. There has to be redress. And at the minute, for most of the large media outlets, there is no effective recourse," he argued.

Government Position and Evolving News Environment

The Culture Secretary commented that a second phase of the inquiry had been discounted and that the news environment was now very different.

"We agree that the landscape has transformed profoundly from the time the second part of Leveson was recommended: people now are more likely to get their news online from a whole variety of sources, which has presented new and different challenges," they explained.

They added that weighing the needs of those affected with the need for a free press was a "really difficult thing to get right," but acknowledged that "action is needed in this area".

A Continued Hope for Closure

The child went missing from a family vacation apartment in 2007 at the age of three. Gerry McCann said that it was "absolutely dismaying" how the press had repeatedly interfered with the investigation.

"Leaked information which ought to have remained private... So if you were the perpetrator, you knew much more than you should have done," he explained.

On the prospect of finding Madeleine, he said the possibility he would find his daughter was "slim but it's not extinguished". "We hope to find her alive, but we need to establish the facts and bring whoever's responsible, and people are at risk while that person is free," he concluded.