Anyone who wants to can find out what the media which engages in media lynchings is publishing. However, few people are aware of the media bullying that is subjecting us, victims, to the worst kind of journalism in Spain. In our experience, some of those who publicly attack us victims call and write not only to people and institutions that support us, but also to others who wish to remain neutral. We have witnessed attempts to make them feel that, if they do not take a stand against us, reports may be published against them as well.
The treatment Jason Arday endured before his death has shown once again the cruelty that can characterize a media lynching, as his family denounced how the media damaged him. These attacks have led to a lack of dissenting voices in the media; during the most intense period of coverage, major news outlets gave little prominence to voices questioning whether the scale and tone of the scrutiny had become disproportionate. That same cruelty meant that, after Arday announced that he had reached ‘the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure’, the coverage did not subside. According to NewsCord’s published census of the national press, a further 188 articles appeared during the following nine days—an increase rather than a reduction in the volume of coverage.
In the face of this media monopoly on such lynchings, social media has become a space of freedom—where we victims face attacks even more cruel than those in the media, but where people and institutions that stand in solidarity and remain true to their principles can also express themselves. The media bullies try to eliminate this last space of free speech with their calls and writings. In our experience, in many cases they succeed in silencing people who wish to ‘avoid trouble’. Few people know this because those who dare to break the silence may face very severe reprisals.
The good news is that there are more and more of us—survivors, along with the people and institutions that support us—who are not staying silent and never will. Inevitably, some of those who are now being coerced into silence will speak out about the coercion they are suffering. There are very important institutions in this situation—international organizations, governments, universities, journalists that are denouncing cruelty and other institutions. When the silence is broken, the bullies will not be able to cover up what they have done. And that transformation will benefit the victims, those who support us, the institutions, and society as a whole.
PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the best school of education in the world