The family of missing girl Madeleine McCann are understood to have expressed serious concern about the tactics of the press for the first time since the four-year-old vanished from a Portuguese holiday resort.
The McCanns were upset about a ‘spoiler’piece in the Daily Mirror which appeared the day before an interview for the Sunday papers.
For her first interviews, last Wednesday, Mrs McCann decided to speak to women’s magazines including Grazia, Woman, Woman’s Own and the Marie Claire website.
She also spoke to a journalist each from The Sunday Times and the Sun?day Mirror. The transcript of the interview was, however, made available to all the Sunday papers this week.
The day before the McCann interview was published, the Daily Mirror teased: ‘My Dark Moments, by Kate McCann’on its front page. In fact, it referred to a story based on interviews with the McCanns’ relatives.
Press Gazette understands that Mrs McCann was upset because the quotes from friends were used to give the initial appearance that the piece was a genuine interview with McCann herself.
The family is also understood to have expressed concern about the accuracy of the quotes.
Similar quotes were used less prominently in the Daily Mail and The Sun the same day.
A spokesman for the Daily Mirror said: ‘We have received no complaint from the McCanns or their representatives.”
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