Germany’s Media Coverage of the Anders Breivik Trial

The shooting on the Norwegian island of Utøya and the subsequent court trial were closely followed also by German media. The island is just 1,000 kilometers from Germany’s capital Berlin, or 460 miles from Kiel where this article is written. This article, however, will not explore the deed in itself but rather the media coverage and the ethical discussion in Germany about the media coverage of the trial.

The shooting left the German audience shocked and seeing the perpetrator Anders Breivik live in court during the trial was of great interest. Besides the actual court procedures considering whether Breivik was mentally sane or of diminished responsibility, another issue was raised by the media and subsequently also discussed within a media ethics context: his salute on the first day of the trial that was widely repeated in broadcast and print media. […]

Read the full article in the current issue of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics at: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/EDdCSs8GMjbWTUe8aAmV/full

This article is a contribution to a number of comments on the topic, including

The Murderer’s Salute: News Images of Breivik’s Defiance After Killing 77 in Oslo by Ginny Whitehouse Norway’s Media Coverage: The Salute of a Man who does not Regret by Elsebeth Frey Visualizing a Mass Murder: The Portraits of Anders Bering Breivik in Danish National Dailies by Kirsten Mogensen The Spanish Meaning of the Murderer’s Salute by Mónica Codina

The project was edited by Ginny Whitehouse, Associate Professor at the Eastern Kentucky University.

Bibliographical notes: Christian Möller (2013) Germany’s Media Coverage: Saluting Professional Journalism. In: Journal of Mass Media Ethics: Exploring Questions of Media Morality, Volume 28, Issue 1, 2013.