A Simple Question.

[jassi]

Bet you don't think the questions so simple now.

It is really. Just that some people like to use a hundred words where one would do. 

[Vertigo Swirl]

Yes, Yes I do.

I think they'd take every available opportunity to stress the fact.

They'd make it front page on every paper & hire a mobile billboard, there'd be a picture of Kate & Gerry on it, with a big arrow pointed right at them, above that would be flashing neon lights spelling out 'suspects'.

This is not too far from the truth first time round, only it was the PT authorities utilising the PT press to point the big arrow at them.

[G-Unit]

This is not too far from the truth first time round, only it was the PT authorities utilising the PT press to point the big arrow at them.

Allegedly.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Allegedly.

The Portuguese press was continually being fed stories during the months leading up to the McCanns being made arguidos.  Do you think they simply made them up themselves or were they being tipped off, in your opinion?

[G-Unit]

The Portuguese press was continually being fed stories during the months leading up to the McCanns being made arguidos.  Do you think they simply made them up themselves or were they being tipped off, in your opinion?

I don't have the evidence needed to form an opinion. Journalists frequently quote anonymous 'sources' which can't be checked. Some people wrongly believed that Martin Smith had changed his evidence thanks to unreliable reporting.

[Robittybob1]

I don't have the evidence needed to form an opinion. Journalists frequently quote anonymous 'sources' which can't be checked. Some people wrongly believed that Martin Smith had changed his evidence thanks to unreliable reporting.

Some people wrongly believed that Martin Smith had changed his evidence thanks to unreliable reporting. that is opinion.

[Vertigo Swirl]

I don't have the evidence needed to form an opinion. Journalists frequently quote anonymous 'sources' which can't be checked. Some people wrongly believed that Martin Smith had changed his evidence thanks to unreliable reporting.

Here's some evidence, from a Portuguese journalist

"However, Jose Manuel Oliveira, who has covered the case since the beginning for the respected daily Diario de Noticias, said: ‘‘Who is responsible for all the information and counterinformation? It’s the police themselves.’’
Under Portuguese secrecy laws, police are forbidden from revealing details of an investigation.
Yet, as they struggle to cope with the whirlwind generated by ‘‘Caso Maddie’’, they have used a series of daily leaks to Portuguese journalists about supposed forensic evidence, diary extracts and tapped phone calls to insinuate that the couple were involved in the disappearance of their own daughter".

Link to follow.

https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20070918/281921653668753

[Vertigo Swirl]

And if you don't trust the word of the Portuguese journalist then perhaps you'll accept the word of a Portuguese policeman?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-488887/We-DID-leak-stories-press-Madeleine-Portuguese-cop-confesses.html

[G-Unit]

Some people wrongly believed that Martin Smith had changed his evidence thanks to unreliable reporting. that is opinion.

Martin Smith gave a direct quote to the Mirror on 16th October 2013

 “The only new thing in the investigation is the elimination of Jane Tanner’s sighting.

“Apart from that from our point of view everything else remains the same in relation to what we said to the police and the media at the time. We have nothing more to add.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-key-witness-accuses-2433328

Here is an 84 page thread showing how people preferred to believe uncorroborated reports in the media that he had changed his mind.
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=7062.0

[Robittybob1]

Martin Smith gave a direct quote to the Mirror on 16th October 2013

 “The only new thing in the investigation is the elimination of Jane Tanner’s sighting.

“Apart from that from our point of view everything else remains the same in relation to what we said to the police and the media at the time. We have nothing more to add.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-key-witness-accuses-2433328

Here is an 84 page thread showing how people preferred to believe uncorroborated reports in the media that he had changed his mind.
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=7062.0

“Apart from that from our point of view everything else remains the same in relation to what we said to the police and the media at the time. We have nothing more to add.”  Tells me nothing for we don't know what he "said to the police and the media at the time".  Did he tell the PIs he had changed his mind?  They aren't in the same subsets as Police and Media.  The PIs would be most unlikely to do the E-fits if he was still identifying Gerry IMO.

[G-Unit]

Here's some evidence, from a Portuguese journalist

"However, Jose Manuel Oliveira, who has covered the case since the beginning for the respected daily Diario de Noticias, said: ‘‘Who is responsible for all the information and counterinformation? It’s the police themselves.’’
Under Portuguese secrecy laws, police are forbidden from revealing details of an investigation.
Yet, as they struggle to cope with the whirlwind generated by ‘‘Caso Maddie’’, they have used a series of daily leaks to Portuguese journalists about supposed forensic evidence, diary extracts and tapped phone calls to insinuate that the couple were involved in the disappearance of their own daughter".

Link to follow.

https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20070918/281921653668753

Was it the police or people connected to the police?

JOSE MANUEL OLIVEIRA
Crime reporter, 'Diario de Noticias'
Information started circulating from sources connected to the Portuguese police that the story was full of holes from the side of the McCanns and their friends.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7106086.stm

[Vertigo Swirl]

Was it the police or people connected to the police?

JOSE MANUEL OLIVEIRA
Crime reporter, 'Diario de Noticias'
Information started circulating from sources connected to the Portuguese police that the story was full of holes from the side of the McCanns and their friends.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7106086.stm

My second link co firms it was the police.  From the horse's mouth.

[G-Unit]

And if you don't trust the word of the Portuguese journalist then perhaps you'll accept the word of a Portuguese policeman?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-488887/We-DID-leak-stories-press-Madeleine-Portuguese-cop-confesses.html

So, which were genuinely police leaks and which weren't? Who knows...

Alipio Ribeiro, national director of the Policia Judiciaria, told top Spanish daily El Pais: "There have certainly been leaks but less than what it seems.

"What is clear is that we have to have the calmness to separate the story, the fantasy, from what is the police side of things.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-488887/We-DID-leak-stories-press-Madeleine-Portuguese-cop-confesses.html#ixzz59l6Y0MJC
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Vertigo Swirl]

So, which were genuinely police leaks and which weren't? Who knows...

Alipio Ribeiro, national director of the Policia Judiciaria, told top Spanish daily El Pais: "There have certainly been leaks but less than what it seems.

"What is clear is that we have to have the calmness to separate the story, the fantasy, from what is the police side of things.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-488887/We-DID-leak-stories-press-Madeleine-Portuguese-cop-confesses.html#ixzz59l6Y0MJC
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

So, we have ascertained that the Portuguese leaked stories to the PT press, akin to the scenario painted by Wonderfulspam I quoted earlier this evening - imo the police used the papers to, in effect, mount a giant "suspects" arrow above the heads of the McCanns. 

[G-Unit]

So, we have ascertained that the Portuguese leaked stories to the PT press, akin to the scenario painted by Wonderfulspam I quoted earlier this evening - imo the police used the papers to, in effect, mount a giant "suspects" arrow above the heads of the McCanns.

Some leaks took place according to Rebeiro. The rest of your post is speculation on your part in my opinion.