She is one of the many children in the world being abducted. We are not aware of the rest. No one seems to talk about them (and that for a good reason, as you will read below) with so much passion.

They are shadows on a wall, images on the milk boxes: the omnipresent question, “Have you seen this child?”

And the media burns.

She smiles with her innocent smile on thousands of web pages. Her eyes, mirrors of purity, dig deep into our souls. They make us aware. They make us pray. Not just for her: for all the kids sharing the same fate.

Who has this little girl? Who kidnapped her and is crazy enough to believe he/she (or maybe they) will get away with it?

In my opinion this was a carefully planned abduction. It happened in Portugal because that’s the easiest target. In a country which in the past 17 years had no abductions records, who would have thought about the possibility of not seeing a child anymore?

So back to the question: have you seen this child? Do you know where this little girl might be?

I know she is not where I live – this is a small village where everybody knows your name.

She could be in Germany because nobody here will pay attention to a little blond girl, no matter how cute. Most oft the German kids are blond. All kids are cute.

She could be in your town.

Or she could be three miles away from the place where she was abducted.

But with all this fuss, do you honestly think that the kidnapers will be stupid enough to bring her to a public place?

I’ll tell you what I think: the publicity is wrong. This child is not missing because she lost her way. She was kidnapped. That means that publicity might scare the kidnapper(s).

In the most fortunate scenario, they’ll abandon the little girl somewhere (and in this case media involvement to identify the child makes sense).

But in the worst scenario, which, excuse my frankness, is also the most probable one, the kidnappers will get scared and kill the child. Don’t get me wrong. I pray that this doesn’t happen. But I am a former military journalist and I have a bit of military training, enough to be able to decide what to publish and when. When the news endangers a human life – and in this case the life of a child – is it OK to continue the ramble?

Is it OK to create a website mirrored on different domains for the child? Is it OK to use her as a publicity tool?

So I’m asking you: what do you think about this story? I know the child has your prayers. I know you believe in God, and I know you have hope. My question is not about your feelings for the child. Only a crazy person would attack the child. Opinions about the parents are also irrelevant. But what do you think about the media? Doesn’t it look to you that they lost their mind and instead of making things better they just endanger the girl?

Is the hunger for sensational really so great that we need a drama of such proportions to feed it?

No, I don’t need to spell a name. You know it! And if you think posting her picture and her name on your blog would help, do it. We can only do what we think it’s best, in good faith. But it’s not OK to harass the family, to hunt them down, to judge their lives, to use their other children for the sensational. That’s not OK!