Standing outside the pretty church in Praia da Luz, Portugal, with a dozens or so other journalists one morning a rumour ripples through the gathering: a 24 hour TV channel is on to the disappearance of another child.

I have heard nothing about this and I am amazed. Reuters cameraman Marco Trujillo and I have spent the last three days in the heat and the sun outside the church, along with a gaggle of media and satellite trucks, because of a rumour that Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann were about to search the building. They did not and they still have not. I phone a friend at the TV channel concerned who is as perplexed as I am by the rumour.

    It proves to be just another day in the Madeleine McCann rumour mill in Portugal. The secrecy of law here may prevent police from openly discussing Madeleine or their investigation but the resulting void of information is filled by speculation, some of it spectacular, some just wild. The law is intended to protect the innocent but it has been circumvented by detectives involved in the case to frustrating effect.

    After a few days in the Algarve I have settled into the routine of the pack, starting the day at an open air café outside a local supermarket which stocks newspapers. Café solo, a croissant and the papers as the sun burns through the morning mist. It is the Portuguese tabloids which consistently break the more lurid stories first; Damning DNA or Smell of Death dogs go wild!

    On a daily basis it seems detectives from Portugals Policia Judiciaria leak snippets of information to their friends in the tabloids. The stories run in Portugal one day, are picked up by 24-hour TV news channels across Europe and become headlines in the British press the next often having taken on a sense of authenticity in the process.

    “What’s the latest?” is as common an opening line from a holidaymaker in this small resort as “did they do it then?,” and a cursory glance of the papers leaves one in no doubt why.

    I am talking to a local journalist who is working on a documentary for a German TV network.

    If my child has disappeared I would not call a TV station before I call the police, she tells me.

   The rumour mill has been busy and the journalists have been listening.