McCanns work the media like pros, says Kirsty Wark

The parents of Madeleine McCann are controlling the media interest in their missing four-year-old daughter with the skills of seasoned television producers, Kirsty Wark has said.

The Newsnight presenter will interview Gerry McCann in front of an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival tomorrow.

Writing in Ariel, the BBC’s in-house magazine, Wark said: “They are incredibly well plugged into the media, and have a campaign organiser, a media adviser who is the godparent of one of their children and a former lecturer in new media and a roster of loyal friends who give their time, energy and expertise.

“They all think laterally about how to produce a new angle on the story. In that way they remind me of the producers on Newsnight, and it’s been that way from the beginning.�?

Wark was one of the first to learn of Madeleine’s disappearance when a neighbour in Glasgow who is a close friend of Kate McCann rang her doorbell. “She was very upset,�?Wark wrote. “She told my husband that Madeleine had disappeared and Kate and Gerry were frantic because the police had been slow off the mark. They were desperate to get the story out and could I help?�?

Spanish police are investigating a reported sighting of Madeleine at a petrol station in Murcia, in the south-east. The sighting came after a Spanish newspaper published an interview with the McCanns.