The McCann family Father Calls for Stricter Media Regulation Following Accounts of Press "Monstering".

Gerry McCann, father to Madeleine McCann has urged for increased oversight for the UK media, recounting how intense press coverage made him feel that he was being "drowning under the pressure".

A Family Subjected to Media Intrusion

Gerry McCann stated that his family was subjected to press "excesses" and that the media had "consistently hampered" the investigation into his daughter's going missing in 2007.

He noted that the media attention exacted a "heavy burden" on his family. "We faced sustained interest and misleading headlines for 15 months or more that compelled us to take legal action to stop it," he commented.

"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 reflected.

A Call to Restart Leveson Inquiry

McCann and his wife, Kate, are among a group of people who have signed a letter urging the government to reopen the second part of the Leveson inquiry, which was due to examine the relationship between the media and the police.

McCann said it was not acceptable that after more than a year, press regulation was "off the agenda". He described how his family had been subjected to "relentless targeting" by certain the media and that the press was "stationed" outside his home for an extended period after the disappearance.

Describing the Harassment

Detailing the events, he said: "Journalists coming to the house, photographers literally ramming their cameras against our car window, when we had young twin children in the back who were frightened, and how traumatic that is for you as a parent."

"It's the inaccuracies. It's the invention of stories to fit the agenda, rather than the facts, which destroys people's lives," he stated.

The Need for Tougher Regulation and Accountability

He argued this behavior highlighted 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 front-page headlines about ourselves and what supposedly happened," he said.

"That almost pulls you under, and you can see how people are broken by it and think they can't get out of it. The harm is profound, and we need that protection. People deserve recourse. And at the minute, for most of these mainstream media, there is no redress," he asserted.

Official Response and Evolving News Environment

The Culture Secretary said that a second phase of the inquiry had been rejected and that the media landscape was now drastically altered.

"We agree that the situation has changed profoundly from the time the Leveson's second phase was proposed: the public is now more likely to get their news from diverse digital platforms, which has created new and different challenges," they stated.

The minister further stated that weighing the rights of victims with the principle of press freedom was a "challenging task to get right," but conceded that "steps must be taken in this area".

A Continued Hope for Answers

The child went missing from a Portuguese holiday resort in 2007 at the age of three. It was stated that it was "absolutely dismaying" how the press had frequently obstructed with the investigation.

"Leaked information which should have been confidential... Consequently, anyone involved, you knew much more than you should have done," he said.

On the prospect of finding Madeleine, he said the possibility he would find his daughter was "slim but it's not extinguished". "I'd love to find her alive, but we need to discover the truth and see justice served, and people are at risk while that perpetrator is free," he stated.