I LIMITI DEL DIRITTO DI CRONACA. IL CASO SARAH SCAZZI

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I LIMITI DEL DIRITTO DI CRONACA.IL CASO SARAH SCAZZI

Relatore: Chiar.mo Prof. Stefano Colloca

Correlatore: Chiar.mo Prof. Giampaolo Azzoni

Tesi di laurea di Stefania Scalercio

UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIAFacoltà di Economia, Giurisprudenza, Ingegneria,

Lettere e Filosofia, Scienze Politiche

Corso di Laurea Specialistica Interfacoltà in Editoria e Comunicazione Multimediale

The limits of freedom of press.The Sarah Scazzi case

IntroductionThe issueI first addressed the issue of the limits of freedom of press and its balance with other rights that ought to be protected.

The effective exerciseSecondly, I analyzed the effective exercise of freedom of press and its limits in the recent and not yet concluded case of Sarah Scazzi.

A deontological analysisFor methodological requirements I have analized in depth the journalistic treatment of the case only in Italy and the period between September 1 and November 30, 2010, period in which the turning points of the survey took place.I have analized 623 news rerports.

The Freedom of Press

The freedom of press is the freedom of an individual in telling the facts as they occur and by any suitable means.

It is considered the basis of the information and contempory democracies

The journalist has the duty to bring a version of the facts that fits the reality entirety

Enhanced Protection: the right of the individual may succumbs to the information need

Decalogue Sentence n. 5259/1984 of the Court of Cassation

The Limits of the Freedom of Press

• Truth: substantial correspondence between the facts as they happened and how they are narrated. Strict or putative, provided that they are the result of a diligent and serious research on the sources;

• Relevance: existence of a clear public interest of the knowledge of the facts in relation to their relevance to the community and the formation of public opinion;

• Continence: civil form of the narration of facts, which should not exceed to the information objective.

Freedom of the Press and Respect for the Person

• Right to personal identity: everybody can be represented with his true identity;

• Right to privacy: a fact must be considered private when its spread has no social utility;

• Protection of honor: feeling and opinion that the subject has of his/her value;

• Protection of reputation: the esteem which the individual has within a given social environment;

• Right to oblivion : a person's interest not to stay indefinitely exposed to the damage caused by repeated publication of a story in the past lawfully disclosed.

The public interest marks the limit beyond which the protection of personal privacy is weakened

is absolute in relation to the facts of crime

exceptional event

seriousness of the event

narrative of freedom guaranteed by Article 6, paragraph 1 of the Codice deontologico relativo al trattamento dei dati personali

nell’esercizio dell’attività giornalistica

Materiality of the information

History of the Sarah Scazzi Case August 26, 2010: disappearance of the fifteen years old Avetrana girl (Taranto);

September 29, 2010: discovery of the girl’s cellular phone by the uncle;

October 7, 2010: After confession, Michele Misseri, let investigators find Sarah's body;

October 15, 2010: Sabrina Misseri is detained for cooperation in the murder of her cousin;

February 23, 2011: Carmine Misseri and Cosimo Cosma are arrested because they were accused of conspiring to corpse suppression;

March 9, 2011: Misseri’s brother and his nephew return to freedom.

An Investigation into the Violated Rights

- horrifying background, disastrous revelations

- Lack of respect against persons involved in the story

-Description of Avetrana as a silence and retrograde town

appeal from the Journalists Order

Publication of audio recordings of interrogations regarding the murder

Committee for the implementation of the codice di autoregolamentazione in materia di rappresentazioni delle vicende giudiziarie nelle trasmissioni televisive

Address by the Garante della privacy

Amendment of a seizure order, with the value of assurance information and paper copies of audio and video files stored on magnetic tapes in Italy

An Investigation into the Violated Rights

The Chronicle of the Violated Rights of Children

Sarah Scazzi (15 years old)

2a phase

Missing child Dead child

Art. 7, paragraph 3, Codice deontologico

andCarta di Treviso

The Codice deontologico does not contain specific references. The only

study in the Carta di Treviso is in relation to the case of suicide

"The child's right to confidentiality must always be considered as primary to the right of criticism and commentary"

1a phase

The Chronicle of the Violated Rights of Children

Children witnesses of morbid taste and

cynical representation of pain

The freedom of press must not exceed the limit of good sense and delicate emotional fragility of children

Codice in materia di Media e Minori

The Public Opinion Attention

THE CAUSES

Ascertain the truth or satisfaction of curiosity?

• Crime not completed within criminal organizations but in an apparently normal context;

• change in mentality and lifestyle of our society, which is located also in the success of noir fiction;

• use by media of the criteria typical of story and narrative, in comparison to those in journalism;

• existence of morbid voyeurism in each of us;

THE CONSEQUENCES• perverse craving for knowledge and a strong need to know;

• feelings of apathy in front of murders and violent events;

• inability to distinguish fact from fiction.

The Mechanism of AudienceBecause of the exceptional nature of the news, the most atrocious crimes arouse public impressive attention The Sarah Scazzi case could not be addressed in a less deep way

This mechanism, however, has no right to invoke the more macabre and morbid details of the story

COMMON INFORMATION MODELS

CRITERIA FOR ECONOMIC COMPETITION

High audience is not an indicator of high quality or high appreciation from the public

AUDIENCE > ADVERTISING REVENUE >

Deontological Analysis

THE PRESS

osservanza dei criteri

inosservanza: livello di vio-lazione basso

inosservanza: livello di vio-lazione medio

inosservanza: livello di vio-lazione alto

RELEVANCE CONTINENCE

On 85 articles analyzed, 31 didn’t observe the criteria of relevance and 54 didn’t observe the criteria of continence.

24 19 7

CONTINENCE

4125 10

RELEVANCE

THE WEB

CONTINENCE

RELEVANCE

TV NEWS

RELEVANCE

CONTINENCE

On 35 news repotrs analyzed, 14 didn’t observe the criteria of relevance and 15 didn’t observe the criteria of continence.

RELEVANCE

CONTINENCE

On 35 news reports analyzed, 15 didn’t observe the criteria of relevance and 15 didn’t observe the criteria of continence.

RELEVANCE

CONTINENCE

RELEVANCE

CONTINENCE

Dossier European Observatory on Sicurity

• ample space everyday dedicated to criminal acts;

• crimes treated as fiction and drama;

• shift of pubblic attention from social issues to crime

STUDIO APERTO

TG5 TG4 TG1 TG2 TG3 TG LA70

di cui Caso Scazzi

Criminalità

MAGAZINE PROGRAMS

“Porta a Porta”, “Matrix” and “Quarto Grado” have searched in the Sarah and characters of the story’s life

revealing information not belonging to journalism

violating the right to privacy and the right to presumption of innocence

ConclusionMotivation of the media success of Sarah Scazzi case:

1. Emotional envolvement;

2. High plays;

3. Low cost;

4. Narrative technique of seriality,

5. Self-body information;

Ethical duties not respected:

1. Materiality of information;

2. Respect for the dignity of the person;

3. Presumption of innocence;

4. Rights of children.

I LIMITI DEL DIRITTO DI CRONACA. IL CASO SARAH SCAZZI

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