An Asian Christian woman living in London blogging about the everyday issues of religion

Monday 3 October 2011

Is a murder case entertainment?


RIP MEREDITH KERCHER

The live broadcast of the trial and verdict of the Meredith Kercher trial has provided, let's be honest, entertainment for many who have no vested interest in the whole sad saga. Of course we care that a young woman was murdered. Yes, we care that justice is done because it is inherent in human nature to want a right to redress a wrong.
However, thousands of cases of injustice are heard in our law courts every year and we don't sit in the public gallery silently cheering justice on all the time while the lawyers argue and the judges deliberate do we? There is a line that exists between being a voyeur and a strong member of society. The name of that line which exists as a boundary is called 'public interest'.
What public interest was there for the public to be told over and over again the sexual details of the life and subsequent murder of a young woman? None. Where was the public interest element in having the verdict broadcast live today? None.
Please remember the true victim in all of this - Meredith Kercher. Pray for her and her family for whom justice still hasn't been done.


3 comments:

  1. How right you are.
    I have been thinking about this at the moment. My Filey Library Reading Group is reading a novel 'The Room ',about a girl locked in a shed/room where she was abused and bore a child and then rescued. It mirrored a true case in the recent news. I was sickened and thought we shouldn't be reading this, but still read to the end when I could have stopped. I then saw on the cover that it was short listed for the Booker last year. Are we all , myself included becoming voyeurs or is it that these days nothing is excluded from the Media if it sells copy . I feel as if we are being de-sensitised to evil, and it is thus becoming almost tolerated in the interests of 'passing concern'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Margaret,
    You raise some interesting points. I do agree that we are becoming de-sensitised to evil and it is due to the massive exposure of society to evil and wrongdoing. However, society still does retain a sense of justice. The paradox is that people enjoy reading true life stories but the people selling these types of books are often the victims of the abuse themselves. Voyeurism by invitation.
    God bless
    Jane

    ReplyDelete
  3. Horror movies have a huge following. It disgusts me how people find entertainment in other people's suffering. Horror films deeply disturb me but yet i have read one or two very mild horror books written for children and i have liked them. I wonder why so many people like to read and watch these sorts of things. Is it curiosity or is it the devil tempting us?
    From
    Libdemchild

    ReplyDelete