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Just as the parents of Madeleine McCann
are reported to be taking their legal
dispute with former PJ detective Gonçalo
Amaral to Portugal’s Supreme Court, the
Resident has learnt that millions of
Brits have been reading the book at the
heart of the fight by accessing it
online.
Since “Maddie:
The Truth of the Lie” was once again
cleared for sale following a ruling by
the Appeal Court in Lisbon last month (click
here), over two million one hundred
and thirty eight thousand people have
visited the Complete Mystery of
Madeleine McCann forum - the site that
carries a translation of the book into
English - and related blogs.
Moderators say that following the ruling
by three Lisbon judges that Amaral was
within his right to self expression in
publishing his thesis about what may
have happened to Madeleine, visits to
the three sites have been exceeding
200,000 - 300,000 a day.
In all, over 11 million people have
viewed “Maddie: The Truth of the Lie” -
while the global number of visits now
stand at over 81 million.
What all this means in terms of a legal
fight that is concentrated on outlawing
the book is unclear.
It is not banned in any country of the
world, and even though the McCanns are
apparently intent on suing any publisher
who takes it on for the UK market (click
here), it appears to have been read by
well over 11 million English-speakers.
This news comes in a week when the
British press has suddenly opened the
floodgates to celebrity criticism of the
McCann parents.
Sharon
Osbourne, the outspoken media
personality and wife of heavy-metal
singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne,
labelled the couple “insane” to have
left their children unattended while on
the fateful family holiday to Praia da
Luz nine years ago, while former model
Katie Price, speaking on the Loose Women
chat show, backed her comments saying
the couple shouldn’t have gone on
holiday if they weren’t prepared to take
their children out with them.
Osbourne’s remarks were labelled “ill
informed” and “ignorant” by a friend of
the McCanns, but the retort got nothing
like the same kind of media coverage.
Meantime, blogs in Portugal following
the McCanns legal fight have stressed
that the couple’s appeal to the Supreme
Court is by no means a ‘done deal’.
The “next step” will be to find out if
the court accepts it. This decision is
unlikely to be taken before the end of
June, reports Textusa (one of the blogs
most active for what it calls “the right
to exercise the duty of being a
citizen), with “expected notification
around a week later”.
“If there are no technical mistakes” -
Textusa explains that the appeal has to
follow certain rules - Amaral will then
have his own time-scale to submit
counter-arguments, all of which will
take the case well past the judicial
holidays in August.
“We don’t see a decision from the
Supreme Justice Court on this case
before Christmas, and even then we’re
being optimistic”, says the blog that
writes all its posts in English.
Also writing in English for the benefit
of non-Portuguese visitors, the Projecto
Justiça Gonçalo Amaral blogsite has
revealed that contributions raised
largely from Brits last year (click
here) will cover Amaral’s latest
call to defend what he maintains is an
issue of the right to freedom of
expression.
Says the blog: "We remain confident, as
always, that Justice will be served and
Freedom of Speech, of Opinion and of
Information will prevail". |
