By Lucy Caulkett-
Heartbroken fans of Caroline Flack are pushing for an investigation to identify acts that constitute media bullying, following the death of Love Island star, Caroline Flack.
A petition pushing for Caroline’s law to criminalise media outlets that bully people has been dismissed by experts and analysts who believe it has little chance of success because of the difficulty in proving what actions qualify for being interpreted as bullying. Celebrities in the public eye are well aware of the fact they are public figures whose lives will often be of public interest to the media.
However, a number of hardcore fans have been expressing a strong desire to members of The Eye Of Media.Com to thoroughly examine how media publications report untrue or unfounded allegations about a celebrity in the public eye. An investigation of this kind would involve joint analysis from our writers of several media reports about the tragic television star, and include assessment from some our thinktank professionals including lawyers and high quality academics from higher educational institutions.
It could also require hours of online and paper searches and will require expert analysis from psychologists and lawyers which will eventually be discussed with the editorial for a final report on the matter.
Some of the heartbroken fans are friends and relatives of this organisation, who are pushing hard for a competent assessment of whether any media publications crossed the line when covering Caroline Flack to a degree that could reasonably be said to have driven her to an untimely death.
The Eye Of Media’s editor last week published an article expressing his conviction that the media can not be held responsible for Caroline Flack’s death in any form or shape, but there some strong disagreement about this even within the team. The television presenter’s death has affected many fans of love island deeply.
Mourning supporters of Caroline Flack want particular focus to be placed on any stories that clearly reveal bullying of the tragic television host in the media. Articles are already being analysed by a number of analysts to see which articles can be confidently identified as meeting a thresh hold of bullying.
The task will be to qualify media articles which go beyond public interest or freedom of expression, and boarder on unreasonable publication that seeks to ‘torment’ or ‘oppress’, or can reasonably be interpreted of having that effect.
EXPECTATIONS
Under recommended guidelines hoped to arise from such an investigation, would be for media outlets that continue or even feature offensive comments by trolls without condemning it would be considered to be condoning it or indirectly approving such trolls.
Strong recommendation will be made to IPSO and the mainstream press if a professional investigation finds evidence that the press significantly contributed to her suicide.
The impact of the media publishing an article repeating a serious allegation other than one made to the police could be assessed as constituting bullying under the proposals.
The challenge such a proposal faces is to effectively demonstrate bullying, using specific media articles and legal language to show this. Lawyers believe this will be the easiest aspect if particular examples can show the traits of bullying or harassment.
Caroline Flack is said to have been subjected to severe abuse by online trolls on facebook and instagram, where her picture was apparently posted with words like ”this is what an abuser looks like”.
PAEDOPHILE ALLEGATION
Media coverage of Caroline Flack being criticised as being a paedophile by a former Love Island contestant, Francesca in a tweet posted in 2012 by one of Francesca’s friends has even been cited as examples of the media recklessly contributing to social trolls subjecting Ms. Flack to abuse. One angry Love Island fan, Charmaine Anderson, 24 told The Eye Of Media.Com;
”The media are mainly to blame for Caroline Flack suicide, they drove her to her death. Imagine printing a tweet in 2012 that referred to her as a paedophile, that’s publicising a false allegation. Just because she dated Harry Style who was much younger than her, but he was still 17, and over the legal age of consent.
Only those who saw the tweet would have known she was called a paedophile, but the media spread it. They knew what they were doing.If you guys are any good, you should hold the lot to account”.
The slur was in relation to Caroline’s famous former relationship with singer Harry Styles – who was 17 years old to her 31 when they dated. A tweet by Paige Bank claiming to have confronted Caroline Flack in the street and calling her a paedophile was reported by most members of the mainstream press.
Those defending the media say there is no harm in the media simply reporting the news, and that this in no way equates to bullying. However, the problem here is that featuring an article reporting allegations that Caroline Flack was accused of being a paedophile is very unlikely to pass a test of bullying where the media is just reporting the news.