JON
CLARKE – OLIVE PRESS
LIES
AND VIDEOTAPE
Foreword
Nota
Bene: After reading the article under discussion I contacted “The Olive
Press”, asking for a retraction and an apology. I received neither
acknowledgment nor reply
A week later I sent a repeat email.
This time Jon Clarke, publisher and editor replied, denying that anything was ‘libel’.
I sent a suggested form of words for the retraction and apology.
He replied repeating that they did not consider that there was any libel.
In
view of this I believe I am entitled to assume that there is no
reasonable prospect of a retraction, a correction, nor an apology.
The
attitude of “The Olive Press” towards defamation may also be clear, as
it was expressed in an article of November 2011, trumpeting under a
44-point-bold banner headline –
WHY LIBEL IS NO BIG DEAL IN SPAIN [1]
In
the previous Chapter “Fake News” I looked at an article by Jon Clarke,
the owner and publisher of a free newspaper in southern Spain “The Olive
Press”.
I showed how that article, published in 2017, was
seriously divergent from, and often contrary to facts as reported by
other people. Notably, and potentially seriously, it directly
contradicted much of what Kate McCann herself had written in her
autobiography “
madeleine”. But there the matter rested. It was discussed on several Fora, but was largely dismissed as “
the usual nonsense”.
In
late March 2019 I went into a supermarket in southern Spain, purchased a
bottle of wine and wrapped it in one of the free tabloid papers
helpfully supplied at the check-out for this purpose.
On this occasion it was “
The Olive Press”. Vol.13 Issue 314 to be precise.
On
page 3 is an article on the recent Netflix documentary about missing
Madeleine Beth McCann, saying “The Olive Press” played a “starring role”
[sic] and entitled “
Hoping for Answers”.
The article is not attributed and is written in the third person, but is clearly by Jon Clarke.
As the publisher and editor of the paper he is ultimately responsible for its content.
In it I am identified by name, occupation and location, and then subjected to the routine, gratuitous
ad-hominen
insults and abuse sadly so typical of what we have come to expect of
those who uncritically support the ‘official’ story put out by
Team McCann and their acolytes and apologists.
In
that article, 7 column inches are devoted to Clarke and the Netflix
documentary, whilst 3.5 column inches are devoted to maligning and
defaming me. 293 words - v - 140 words
One third of the entire article is devoted to entirely gratuitous abuse.
Gratuitous
in that it does not address the central point of the article, which is
to emphasise the importance of Clarke and “The Olive Press” in the
Netflix programmes.
Gratuitous in that yet again it sets up and then knocks down the
straw-man argument about “
proving that the McCanns did not kill Madeline’ which it is unlikely anyone actually believes.
I
am a long since retired police officer as he accurately states, from a
previous millennium and perhaps from a more robust generation. I am
hardened to abuse of the sort we come to expect from drunks, drug users,
criminals and tabloid journalists.
But there is more. He goes on to make four distinct statements about me.
It
is in the public domain, published in 100,000 copies, with huge numbers
of readers both on-line and via Facebook and Android apps - his
figures, not mine - and so I give a quote
“The
former Nottinghamshire copper has long trolled that the parents were
guilty and even produced a libellous pamphlet on why they did it. . . .
.
. [he] once tried to claim that Olive Press editor Clarke could not
have been in Praia da Luz on the morning after Maddie’s disappearance.
In a disgusting blog post he also somehow suggested that Clarke may have been in some way involved.”
Strong stuff. So perhaps a measured and proportionate response is not altogether unexpected.
Let
us pick it apart. Let us be clinically detached, ignore the sneering
and abusive tone, forget the libel, and stick to the facts of what is
being said. Keep our eye on the squirrel.