The influence of the media in the Richthofen case: between press freedom and the violation of fundamental rights

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the Richthofen case from the perspective of studying fundamental rights, seeking to understand whether the excessive media coverage of the case would be putting the detainees’ resocialization at risk and, consequently, violating the fundamental rights to which they are entitled. It focuses on the following research problem: Are there rights (principles and rules) being violated by the repeated excessive media coverage of the Richthofen case? For this purpose, news of the criminal case was selected on the google news page, with a time frame of 7 years. From this juncture, the article will be divided into three stages: The first chapter will address the criminal case now under study, followed by the contextualization of the theoretical contributions of Fundamental Rights and the approach to the study of the Lebach case, ending with the analysis of the filtered reports, applying the knowledge described in the previous chapters and seeking to understand whether there are Fundamental Rights being violated due to excessive mediatization. The methodology adopted is predominantly deductive, with the aid of the monographic procedure method and the research technique of indirect documentation. It was concluded, through the analysis of the materials found, that the excessive media coverage of Richthofen endangers the re-education of re-educators, violating Fundamental Rights such as the right to privacy, application of human dignity and the guarantee of the right to re-socialization.