The backlash: how the Portuguese press reported the story

GERRY McCann's criticism yesterday of increasingly "intrusive" media coverage surrounding Madeleine's disappearance highlighted crucial differences in the way the story is reported in British and Portuguese newspapers.

When the couple's stage-managed photo opportunities and interviews dried up, the London-based pack of journalists camped on the Algarve for the past four months were left to live off scraps from the notoriously secretive police judiciara.

They began giving wider currency to sensational claims from mostly unnamed "police sources" in the local press, dressing them up as "smears". Gerry and his wife Kate's patience snapped last week when they attacked the Portuguese tabloid Tal & Qual which splashed with claims that detectives think the couple drugged and killed their daughter.

It followed the publication of unfounded rumours that police were about to arrest one of the "Tapas Nine" - the tag given by internet gossips to the McCanns and their holiday friends who enjoyed a meal at the complex on the night the four-year-old vanished.

Although the name of the "suspect" wasn't printed, Dr Russell O'Brien was identified after his home town, Exeter, was. Despite the claims, he wasn't arrested and said Portuguese police are still treating him as a witness. He branded the allegations "completely untrue and extremely hurtful".

The flurry of speculation followed a story published in Sol, a Lisbon-based weekly newspaper, on August 18. Based on interviews with unnamed staff and police "sources" it reported how O'Brien left the table for 25 minutes to tend to his daughter after she was sick in bed.

The implication was clear: O'Brien, who was holidaying with his partner, had time to snatch or murder Madeleine.

The McCanns made a pre-emptive strike before Gerry's trip to Edinburgh, when "sources close to the family and friends" dismissed Sol's claims the group drank 14 bottles of wine on the night - casting doubt on whether they would remember the exact times Madeleine was checked before she vanished.

The Evening Standard was leaked information on Friday which helped the paper reconstruct the timings of that night. The source told the paper: "If it was one of the friends, then it would have to be all of them to ensure a cover-up."

Sol journalist Margarida Davim accused her British rivals of being overly sympathetic to the McCanns. Davim told the Sunday Herald that O'Brien "was on holiday with his wife, but that night most of the time he was alone".

She added: "A British journalist covering the story told me it was very difficult, after the way his paper had covered the 'find Madeleine' campaign, to be objective. They don't write about some of the things going on here and seem to be on a different case to us, writing different stories."

Davim claimed Gerry was attempting to stop the group of friends from speaking to the media and that he once angrily phoned, threatening to report her to the police, after she contacted them. She added: "They [the friends] told me they had 'pacts' and 'arrangements' between themselves not to talk about the case or their relationships or their holidays. They even told me he [Gerry] had indirect control over everything that came out."

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