Topic: Is anyone else concerned about the apparent 'Trial by Media' re Costa Concordia?

I have been reading and watching with growing concern at the constant speculations, Costa staff comments, press intrusion (particularly to a member of Costa staff lying injured and in pain in hospital, thanlfully he made no comment to questions). Who is supposed to be in charge of ensuring that proper judicial proceedings are not compromised? Makes me feel very uneasy.

I remember well the recent persecution (by press) of the landlord of a young woman brutally murdered in a flat in his house. It turned out he had nothing to do with the murder, but terrible damage was done to his character.

I am amazed at the amount of speculation that a tragedy like this generates.
But when there are potential crimes and there have been arrests, how can tapes of conversations pertinent to the "crime" be issued and published around the world? And how is the "criminal" allowed to make statements to the press? Is this trial by media?

Cannot understand your concerns it has been world wide news for the last 6 days,absolute proof has been established that Captain Doctor Death is to blame.He should be locked up for the next 20 yrs as terrified people will remember the incident for the rest of their lives.

The truth is at the moment we just don't know the exact cause and sequence of events that caused this tragedy, but I will be very interested in the findings of the investigation.......

I too want the truth to be uncovered, but I am worried that evidence may be compromised due to the way it is fed to journalists. For example, transcripts of formal police interviews are being 'leaked' to news media. This is surely wrong?

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I have been reading and watching with growing concern at the constant speculations, Costa staff comments, press intrusion (particularly to a member of Costa staff lying injured and in pain in hospital, thanlfully he made no comment to questions). Who is supposed to be in charge of ensuring that proper judicial proceedings are not compromised? Makes me feel very uneasy.

I remember well the recent persecution (by press) of the landlord of a young woman brutally murdered in a flat in his house. It turned out he had nothing to do with the murder, but terrible damage was done to his character.

Censorship of the media would be a terrible thing to happen, Imagine it before any news is broadcast it would have to be submitted to some government department first! A handy tool many government's would like love to have, To control what people think & say is not the answer! As for media hype it is up to the individual to be able that recognise it for what it is journalism at its worst to feed the masses.

I would hate to see censorship of the Media, but have learnt to ignore a lot of what they say.
In this case will wait until, there has been a full and proper investigation of what happened that night when all the facts on both sides are investigated properly, and if and when there is to be a trial of the Captain (he has not been charged yet), will also wait until the result of that trial, before passing judgement.
Have never liked trials by the media, I dont know how the Italian courts work, but I would say if the Judicial proceedings were to be taking place in this country, I feel they would have been compromised.

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Cannot understand your concerns it has been world wide news for the last 6 days,absolute proof has been established that Captain Doctor Death is to blame.

Nonsense! Proof? What proof?

We do not ACTUALLY know all the facts as yet, the newspapers have largely been printing rumour and speculation. Even quotes from the captain are allegedly "leaked transcripts" - are they even accurate? The 'Black Box' has yet to be analysed.

It's been 'trial by Media' so far and Costa/Carnival have very quickly taken the "pilot error" stance in case their future cruises don't sell.

Now we have the "mystery blonde on the bridge" story. I find it hard to imagine the relevance of her to the accident, if she even existed.

Let's NOT forget the Capitan has been request to go DANGEROUSLY close to the island before. Who decided it was safe then? Should they not also be in the proverbial 'dock'. This island 'skimming' thing was obviously a common practice - you can't tell me that senior Costa staff did not notice! Everyone in authority obviously thought that it was safe.

I can guarantee that like all accidents there will be multiple-causation, involving bad practice, poor procedures, bad senior management and NOT just a rouge Captain.

I guess we see and hear of plenty of negative things about our judicial system and yes, you do tend to think that all this press stuff wouldn't have been allowed in our county as it may hinder any court case. We have to remember this has happened in a different country and they do things differently to us. I bet our press are loving the fact that they can report anything they want about this

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Nonsense! Proof? What proof?

We do not ACTUALLY know all the facts as yet, the newspapers have largely been printing rumour and speculation. Even quotes from the captain are allegedly "leaked transcripts" - are they even accurate? The 'Black Box' has yet to be analysed.

It's been 'trial by Media' so far and Costa/Carnival have very quickly taken the "pilot error" stance in case their future cruises don't sell.

Now we have the "mystery blonde on the bridge" story. I find it hard to imagine the relevance of her to the accident, if she even existed.

Let's NOT forget the Capitan has been request to go DANGEROUSLY close to the island before. Who decided it was safe then? Should they not also be in the proverbial 'dock'. This island 'skimming' thing was obviously a common practice - you can't tell me that senior Costa staff did not notice! Everyone in authority obviously thought that it was safe.

I can guarantee that like all accidents there will be multiple-causation, involving bad practice, poor procedures, bad senior management and NOT just a rouge Captain.

That sums it up nicely, Malcolm. There will be people (both on the ship staff and at Costa HQ) who realise that they also played a part in this tragedy quaking in their boots and trying desperately to reflect any possible blame away from themselves. This must not be allowed to happen, the truth must be uncovered.