It comes after the Glasgow-born man said he felt he was being “suffocated and buried” by the UK media after the disappearance of his daughter in 2007, which remains unsolved.
(Image: Image of Madeleine McCann.)
Madeleine disappeared at the age of three from Praia da Luz in Portugal’s Algarve when her family was on holiday.
Gerry McCann said his family were subjected to “monstering” by sections of the press and are lucky to have “survived”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the headlines, hounding and abuse at the hands of the media can damage people’s lives.
He said the press interest into Madeleine’s disappearance took a “huge toll” on his family, adding: “And obviously we had sustained interest and misleading headlines for 15 months or more that forced us, forced us to take legal action to stop it.
“But no-one, no-one wants to go to court.”
He continued: “We had tremendous support.
“But I can promise you, there were times where I felt like I was drowning, and it was the media, primarily.
“It was what was happening and the way things were being portrayed, where you were being suffocated and buried, and it felt like there wasn’t a way out.”
Kate and Gerry McCann. Picture credit: Joe Giddens/PA Wire. (Image: Kate and Gerry McCann. Picture credit: Joe Giddens/PA Wire.)
Gerry also said the press “repeatedly interfered” with the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
He said that for months afterwards, his family had journalists coming to his house and photographers “literally ramming their cameras against our car window”, which would terrify the couple’s two-year-old twins.
He added: “Published material which should have been confidential, should be passed on to the police, witness statements, many other things that have gone out.
“So if you were the perpetrator, you knew a lot more than you should have done – and as a victim, as a parent, it’s absolutely dismaying.”
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Gerry went on to say that more than a year on from Labour coming into power, “press regulation is no longer a priority”.
He hopes for a resumption of the cancelled second phase of the Lord Leveson Inquiry, which would have looked into unlawful action taken by the media as well as relationships between journalists and politicians and the police.
The McCanns are among more than 30 people who have signed a letter being sent to Sir Keir Starmer, in which they are calling on him to reverse the decision not to hold the second phase of the inquiry.
Gerry said he is “extremely disappointed” that Labour politicians had not committed to implementing some of the recommendations made in the first part of the Leveson Inquiry, which they had committed to in the run-up to the election.
He said: “We’re over a year into the government, and there haven’t been any changes.
“It’s not acceptable to me now, more than a year on, that Leveson and press regulation is no longer a priority.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said a second phase of the inquiry had been “ruled out” and that the media landscape was now very different.
She told BBC Breakfast: “It’s a really difficult thing to get right, because we’ve got to balance the rights and needs of victims and survivors with the need for a free press.
“But I do recognise that action is needed in this area, and I’d be really happy to meet Mr McCann to discuss it.”
Speaking on whether or not he still holds out hope on finding his missing daughter, Gerry said: “Madeleine’s been missing for 18 years, and the bottom line is, we still don’t know what’s happened to her.
“I don’t even mean ‘convincing’ evidence – there is no evidence to say she’s dead.
“Now we fully understand she may be dead, it may even be probable, but we don’t know that.”
“Obviously, the hope is slim, but it’s not extinguished.
“But we need to find out what’s happened to her.
“I’d love to find her alive, but we need to find out what happened and bring whoever’s responsible to justice, and other children and people are at risk while that perpetrator is free.”
