Madeleine reporting "crossed a line"

LONDON (Reuters) - Newspaper coverage of Madeleine McCann's disappearance took on a new tone this week in the run-up to a key landmark.

It is nearly 100 days since the toddler was snatched from an apartment in Portugal on May 3 as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant.

The Guardian newspaper said: "Now they are back at the centre of media attention unseen since the early weeks of the case."

A result was that "reporting this week has crossed a line," The Independent said in an editorial on Thursday.

"Insignificant stories have been hyped up and speculation elevated to the status of fact", it added.

"The coverage in both Britain and Portugal has degenerated into innuendo and smears."

Some of the "hype and speculation" surrounded reports that traces of blood had been found on the wall of the apartment in which the family was staying when Madeleine disappeared.

The Guardian said the report had unleashed a "storm of speculation and innuendo in the Portuguese media".

Virginia Blackburn, writing in the Daily Express, accused the Portuguese police of "beginning to look as if as well as being inept, they are also incredibly cruel" for reportedly suggesting the four-year-old had been murdered.