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From watchdogs to witch-hunters: Italian mainstream media in a moral vacuum

The ‘News of the World’ scandal which exploded last July in the UK reopened the debate, both in the public opinion and the press, about the need for an ethical code for the media industry. 

The press has been blamed for betraying its original watchdog role, understood as a key facet of every functioning democracy. The quick changes and high competition within the global media industry combined with the pursuit of revenue maximisation seem to be pushing journalism towards a “moral vacuum”. 

The Italian media landscape is a good case study for such degenerating ethical behaviour. With the main newspapers and television channels deeply immersed in the country’s never ending political struggles, unquestioned reports breaching ethical and legal codes seem to be becoming increasingly frequent in the mainstream media.

“We observe a mixture of advertising and information, frequent cases of privacy pressures and violations and a general disregard towards ethical rules,” says Gianluca Amadori, president of the Association of Journalists for the Veneto region. 

In a survey conducted by research institute AstraRicerche on a sample of 485 professional journalists from the region of Veneto, 81 percent respondents said that, “the practise of ethical behaviour [within the profession] is low or inexistent” and the consequences of this situation are visible in most of the national dailies and on the country’s mainstream TV channels. 

Getting away with murder

These days, the Italian press is focusing on the final stages of the trial for the 2007 murder in Perugia of British student Meredith Kercher, which is due to come to a conclusion by the end of the month, when the two accused, US citizen Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito will have extinguished their chances of appealing the sentences which have forced them to spend the last four years in prison.

Their case is a clear example of the dangerous power of the media in forging public opinion in relation to criminal cases. Media reports in the days prior to the arrest of the two accused breached the principle of presumption of innocence contained in the Italian Charter of Duties of Journalists. The document states that journalists “may not spread news presenting a person as guilty when the person has not been judged guilty in a legal process.”

By pointing the finger at the possible criminal before legal proceedings have even started, the media have the power to influence juries and to compromise the defendant’s chance for a fair trial. Italian media networks ignored this principle and opted instead to turn the case into a “witch-hunt”.

TV programmes such as Porta a Porta dramatised the dynamic of the crime or offered psychological-profile analyses for Knox and Sollecito, while press articles depicted them as acting in a suspicious way and not being “upset enough”.

A dramatisation of the Meredith Kercher murder by TV Programme Porta a Porta

When the trial began in 2009, the un-sequestered jury had had enough time to absorb the numerous media reports about the case, which possibly influenced their verdict.

Disregarding the fact that biased and prejudicial reports can impede legal proceedings and be held in contempt of court, the media industry seems to largely rely on their potential to create interest and controversy and to boost sales. “Publications weigh the risk between being sued and the revenue they will generate by publishing a controversial story,” explains Gavin Evans, a tutor London School of Journalism and contributor to The Guardian newspaper. “They breach the law every day and often get away with murder.”

Anarchy in the name of revenue

The coverage of the 2010 murder of Sarah Scazzi, a young girl from the Italian town of Avetrana, is an example of how the media are prepared to cross the line separating information from voyeurism in pursuit of media revenue.

The discovery of the corpse of the 15-year-old was announced on live television to the girl’s mother on October 7, 2010 during the TV show Chi l’ha visto, marking the integration of news broadcasting with reality-show style television.

Mother told live on Italian TV of daughter’s murder

A morbid wave of curiosity engulfed the rest of the country as mainstream media outlets increasingly substituted official organisations in releasing material such as police interrogation transcripts and audio files and were responsible for serious leaks of investigative evidence before the start of legal proceedings.

Deontological codes were transgressed as the names of some of the victim’s relatives not connected to the investigation were publicly revealed and private details were published about the sexual lives of Sabrina Misseri, Sarah’s cousin who is still under investigation, and Ivano Russo, the young man designated by the press as the possible jealousy motive behind the murder.

Vittorio Feltri, founder of the daily newspaper Libero, explains these editorial choices within the logic of journalism as a business which cannot “escape the laws of supply and demand,” adding that “in the end, television is just the mirror of society.” This argument does not seem to take the accountability of the media into account and reflects the self-protectionist position of Italy’s information industry.

More codes and regulations?

Even if ethical breaches may be unavoidable in the media, “journalism carries the natural antibody to react [to incorrect professional behaviour] within itself”, argues Italian journalist Antonio Polito. The investigations carried out by The Guardian during the ‘News of the World’ scandal are an example of such internal media monitoring.

Enrico Finzi of Astra Ricerche does not believe that new regulations are necessary:  “Journalists are asking for existing regulations to be applied and they are willing to do their part. It would be sufficient to apply the existing ones and their corresponding sanctions to directly discipline those who are caught red-handed in breaching them”.

Besides their watchdog role, contemporary media should not overlook the importance of self-surveillance, with media outlets checking not only on society, business and politics, but also raising red flags on the very industry they belong to.

Tags: amanda knox, code, deontology, ethics, italy, live television, mainstream media, media, media industry, media landscape, meredith kercher, raffaele sollecito, regulation, sarah scazzi, the guardian, the news of the world, voyeurism, watchdog,

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