VivirLatino

I’m sure you’ve heard the stories of Josef Fritzl, the father who locked his daughter in a dungeon for decades and continuously raped and impregnated her. Well, from Colombia we get the story of Arcedio Alvarez Quintero–another man who has raped and impregnated his daughter for decades. < --more-->

Alvarez’s lawyer, Ricardo Correa, told CNN affiliate Caracol that his client appeared Saturday before a judge, who read the three charges. The judge ruled that the case against Alvarez was strong enough for him to be jailed with special protection as he awaits trial. No trial date has been scheduled.

Caracol reported that Alvarez entered “innocent” pleas to the charges.

Correa did not respond to CNN requests for an interview.

According to Caracol, the 59-year old Alavarez told the court he is innocent. Correa told Caracol that his client’s defense “will be that Alba Nidia is not his biological daughter,” but his adopted child.

Nidia insists that she is his daughter.

Authorities plan to conduct blood tests to determine the two’s genetic relationship, local officials said.

Because, you know, “having sex” with a five-year-old is totally an every day natural occurrence as long as she’s not related to you!

Gilma Jimenez, an official in Colombia, got it right when she said:

Gilma Jimenez, a local councilwoman who has had close contact with Nidia, has offered her financial assistance and has been speaking out against child abuse.

“One of the tragedies of this whole story, is that it seems that many different people in the community knew about this situation, but no one said anything,” Jimenez told CNN. “This is the indifference, the silence that encourages more child abuse.”

…

“This is not enough. … We have failed our children in Colombia,” she said.

Although I am the first to cry outrage at men/fathers/people in general raping little kids, much less grown adults, I have to wonder at why stories of abuse are suddenly flooding our media outlets. Is it really that the media cares so much–or is there something titillating about reporting these stories?

What are the ethical standards the media holds itself to when reporting about cases of abuse? As far as I can tell, the media agrees to withhold the name of the survivor. Other than that, there is no overall agreement on what will be reported (as in do all the disgusting details need to be revealed?), what words will be used to report on the case (Is it rape? Incest? “Sex”?), or even what role the media has in reporting on these cases (Unbiased “just the facts” sort of reporting? Supporters of the survivor? Community advocate against rape?)?

Intense media scrutiny of rape cases can be a good and a bad thing. It can give rape survivors courage to come forward and report their own abuse–but more often than not, it’s extremely destructive. It terrifies rape survivors from coming forward, it often biases juries so that accused don’t get fair trails, and triggers survivors into suicidal depressions that they often don’t come out of (see rates of suicide of indigenous peoples of Canada when news about boarding school violence began to surface).

I think that all these stories need to be exposed and reported on. But I think that there should be certain standards to reporting that center the health an safety of survivors and protects the accused, at least until there is a guilty verdict.

I don’t see the day coming when media adopts any standards like that, however. Which to me, is a tragedy in itself.