Britain's Express Newspapers have this week paid the price for crossing the line of fact versus fiction in the case of Madeleine McCann's disappearance last summer.

Express Newspapers have been forced to pay £550,000 in damages, plus issue indepth apologies for more than 100 "seriously defamatory" articles alleging the McCanns were responsible for Madeleine's death, as well as conjecture they engaged in wife-swapping orgies, and even that they sold their daughter to child traffickers.

The Daily Express and Daily Star carried lengthy front page apologies and admitted in the high court the allegations were "utterly false".

As the Guardian reported, commentators were divided over what the case meant for the media.

"Some critics said the affair marked a new low for the British press while others questioned the effectiveness of the Press Complaints Commission. But other commentators hoped it would mark "the moment when the tide starts to turn against certain media excesses.""

If you skim through the Media section of the Guardian's website, you will find commentary calling for the resignation of the editors of these papers.

Express Newspapers will reportedly repeat the apologies in the Sunday Express, Daily Star Sunday and on its website. The agreed damages will be paid into the Find Madeleine fund.

The McCanns said in a statement, "The distress all this has caused members of our wider family, at a time of great emotional turmoil for them, was also a major factor in our action."

Britain's shadow culture secretary blamed the decision-makers behind the newspapers.

"The broader lesson is that if you put journalists under incredible pressure to deliver a certain kind of story, you risk this kind of outcome. That is highly damaging not only for that newspaper but for the whole industry."

This is the ultimate issue for Britain's media industry. In an environment where having the most eye-catching story can be hugely lucrative for the business involved, telling lies becomes almost a business decision to those in charge of the newspapers.

In an industry where trust is paramount and to many "the media" are one and the same, punishing those who cross the line so severely is important. Like the Azaria Chamberlain case in Australia in the 1980s, when beautiful children go missing and the media leaps on the story, the surge of public opinion can easily stir a witch-hunt mentality on the part of a feverish public.

If your daughter went missing one summer in Portugal, your predicament would be unimaginable. But if four newspapers began to publicly accuse you of murder, then you've suddenly become the victim of two societal menaces.

Many will continue to call for great media regulation as a result of such events. And as such, the valid news stories, the ones truly in the public's interest to understand - will become all the more hard to report accurately.

For the sake of good journalism, let's hope a few very powerful people saying 'sorry' can start to heal an open sore for the media industry.