At times, media trials resemble the Roman circus—not because they are the same, but because they cast a person into a public spectacle that satisfies those who take pleasure in watching others be publicly destroyed. Freedom of expression cannot be invoked to justify a media trial that replaces or undermines the procedural safeguards guaranteed under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The rapid growth of virtual spaces for communication among people around the world has led to an audience crisis for traditional media, making it increasingly difficult to sustain even journalists’ salaries. Some media outlets have responded intelligently by seeking new ways of engaging with the most discerning audiences. Rather than attempting to monopolize access to information, they position themselves as reliable guarantors of the truth of what they report in the midst of a jungle where it is increasingly difficult to distinguish facts from falsehoods.
Other media outlets and journalists have taken the opposite path. They target the worst audiences, competing to be the ones who best satisfy their most primitive passions. In the Roman circus, as in many other spectacles throughout history, a large part of the audience took pleasure in the suffering and abuse inflicted on the human being placed in the arena; they enjoyed it and behaved like a mob, for example, demanding the person’s death. Today, this is the kind of journalism that Umberto Eco referred to as the mud machine. It promotes media trials: it chooses the accused, publicizes the acts they are alleged to have committed, and pronounces its own verdict. Even if the courts later declare that person innocent, they remain condemned for life by the logic that “a lie leaves a stain.”
The psychology of those who cheer on these media trials closely resembles that of those who turned their thumbs down in the Roman circus. It is striking how this kind of journalism justifies itself by invoking freedom of expression and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), while overlooking Article 7, which enshrines the principle that there can be no punishment without law.
1st with the most total citations of all categories, among those authors including in Google Scholar "Gender Violence" as one of them.