Media coverage of sexual violence by police in colonial contexts: an explorative study

Abstract

ABSTRACT When facing the inadequacy of the legal system, an initial impulse is to turn to non-legal accountability mechanisms, like the media. This research contends that the latter can also exhibit strong limitations. More precisely, the paper investigates how journalists shaped the Val-d’Or ‘crisis’. These events consisted of allegations of police (sexual) violence, mainly against Indigenous women, and were disclosed to the public by the media in 2015. This research relies on qualitative interviews with journalists and members of civil society. While participants confirmed the media’s capacity to bring allegations into the public sphere, they also decried the dismissal of some narratives, including the colonial context and the focus on one police force (i.e. the Sûreté du Québec) as opposed to police violence, as well as the revictimization of media informants. This exploratory study cautions that mediatic input can harm victims and prevent a complete comprehension of police sexual violence by silencing the role of settler colonialism.