Media in the Christchurch Process - Hardly any words about the perpetrator
When the verdict against the Christchurch assassin was announced, the focus was initially on the victims. But right from the start, care was taken to ensure that the perpetrator was not given a public stage.
Life without parole - this judgment was first pronounced in New Zealand This means that the racist assassin from Christchurch, who killed a total of 51 people in two mosques in March 2019, will remain in prison until the end of his life.
The prosecutor described the man as New Zealand's "most terrible murderer" before the verdict was announced. Now, in addition to his imprisonment, he deserves silence for life, according to New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who thus joined the hope of many relatives. They want the perpetrator to serve his sentence without paying much attention.
No platform for the perpetrator
The name of the perpetrator was rarely mentioned during the trial. “The media here agree that the perpetrator should not be given a platform, as the Prime Minister also wished, but that the focus should be on the victims and their stories,” said the journalist Alexandra Falk, who oversaw the trial and was also present when the judgment was announced.
Live coverage was prohibited during the trial. "There were only two ways to report: It was once during the lunch break and then every day after the court session," said Falk on Deutschlandfunk.
The name of the perpetrator has not been mentioned on Deutschlandfunk for a long time either.
"People left with their fate"
Now others got public attention - also at the end of the court process. At the beginning of his verdict, the judge once again gave all the names of those killed and injured. “The perpetrator was not given a platform, but the victims - also from the media,” says Alexandra Falk.
She also pointed out, however, that some media had “left scorched earth and people with their fate” in their coverage of the Christchurch attack. That was especially true for international media.
