argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Analysis
The disease we carry
Gorka Peñagarikano Goikoetxea 2023ko maiatzaren 19a

The massacre has become pornography in recent days in the Basque Country, following the terrible event in Orio (Gipuzkoa). A man killed a former couple on Tuesday afternoon, on the same street, a few meters from a playground. To say that the Machista murder has shaken society – once again – falls short – in the last two decades, in Euskal Herria, 118 women have been killed as a result of machist violence.

The fact that it happened in the street, in the place of passage of many people, and because it was a clear day, surely has taken another point of morbidity. But under no circumstances can it be justified. This journalist's campaign received a voice message just over an hour after the event. The Whatsapp itself said that it came “many times forwarded”. The message contained a number of details which were later known not to be true. But it doesn't matter if they were half or half fake. The problem is that there has been a great distribution of pain, which leads to a chronification of suffering and a certain acceptance of this type of behavior. The result is, with great indifference, that since the massacre we have created a bloody film based on drama. We want to think it's been the result of actions that we don't think twice, but perhaps the humanity that we have inside is inhumanity. What do you need to live next door to photograph and share on the networks from the window of the house, and even for those who have received it to continue sharing and nourishing the pain? If these photographs could serve for the investigation, at least, because they would play a role, I think the friends of the crew would not help investigate the murder. By the way, the takeover of the mayor, leaving aside the posters for the campaign, to speak so clearly at such a dramatic moment, is to applaud.

I would say that levels of sensationalism had not been seen long ago, and the media fed it well. If it is regrettable to share the photos on the networks, it is even more regrettable and regrettable that a dozen photographs are published that are only painfully and that bloody covers are offered the following day. A newspaper said “a cruel machista murder” in the headline of the following day; its behaviors in the past hours were also cruel. Another journal, in addition to these issues, told us that the killer was a "normal guy" and we were able to know where he had taken coffee and where to park the car before the murder. Without that information, we wouldn't sleep quiet, or I don't know... And we've also seen the weapon of crime to put some blood-stained news. These two media outlets, within 36 hours, offered the subject about twenty tweets, in all detail, as it could not otherwise be.

These two Gipuzkoan newspapers receive large bags of public money annually, as their service responds to the needs and rights of citizens. Some news item would say that the mayor of Orio has asked to “act responsibly” with the use and dissemination of the photographs. Someone might be turned on the light bulb.