|
Helsinki Edition
October 1998
About Us
Index
News
Features
Focus: Europe
Columns
Letters to the Editor
Editorial
Links
Archive |
Paedophiles are still big news
The other evening my mother went to the local bowling alley with some friends. In the bowling lane next to them, a girl was sitting on her father's lap. One of the women told my mother how much she disapproved of the father's inappropriate behavior with his daughter. One man's actions, spread by the media, have affected an entire nation.
It all started when several children went missing. Their parents went to the police, who weren't much help. Doing some investigating of their own, they found connections between the disappearances. No one, including the press, listened. Only after Marc Dutroux was arrested for kidnapping and killing the children, the press gave the parents a chance to speak. It also became clear that the police and judicial system had made some fatal mistakes during the investigation.
Jan Manssens of the University of Antwerp, talking about the massive media attention given to the parents, says, "Feeling guilty, the national newspapers wanted to make up for their earlier silence. We call it the 'wiedergutmachungs-effect'." The extensive newscoverage of the police and judicial system's failure has two explanations. Jan Manssens explains, "Some Flemish newspapers weren't on very good terms with the section of the police that made the mistakes, because in the past, there had been several searches at some newspapers. So they were only too happy to report on this. Also, being the watchdog of democracy, they felt they were the ones who could and would discover the truth."
Eventually, the public became so disgusted with the police and judicial system that they took to the streets. It was the biggest demonstration in Belgian history. According to a study at the University of Antwerp, the mobilisation was only possible because of the media attention given to the parents. Jan Manssens explains, "In the past, sociologists would have claimed this to be impossible. Classical sociological theories say there has to some kind of organisation, for example a union, to mobilise people for social demonstration. In this event, the media replaced those organisations." The demonstrations eventually led to reforms in the judicial system and police.
The Dutroux case also had some side effects, though. Possible paedophiles are now immediately slaughtered in the media. Names are mentioned and reputations are harmed for life before people have had a trial. Bart Cammaerts, former spokesman for politician Elio Di Rupo, says, "These days the basic principle of being innocent before proven guilty doesn't count for politicians and paedophiles. You're guilty until proven innocent, which is a dangerous trend."
"Eros and thanatos have always been best sellers," says Mike De Mulder, who works for the news on public radio. This explains why the media report so much on paedophilia and related subjects. Jan Van den Bulck at the Catholic University of Louvain says, "It´s not so much the journalists who want to report on these issues, it's the people who earn money selling the paper."
It's not unlikely that because of all the media attention given to paedophilia, the problem is perceived to be bigger than it actually is. Even artists like photographer Sally Mann, who takes a lot of pictures of her children, have been wrongfully linked with paedophelia. That night in the bowling alley, my mother completely disagreed with the remark the woman made but was too shocked to say anything. She wouldn't have liked her daughters to be given dirty looks for sitting on their dad's lap.
Ann-Marie Cordia |
