Australian media makes martyr of Corby
Australian media makes martyr of Corby
Neil Sands, Agence France-Presse/Sydney, Australia
Australia's most recognized face right now is not a movie star or
politician but a young beauty therapist facing life imprisonment
in Indonesia for allegedly trafficking drugs to the resort island
of Bali.
Images of Schapelle Corby staring through the bars of her
Balinese prison cell dominate newsstands from Sydney to Perth,
while talkback radio airwaves are abuzz with discussion about the
fate of the 27-year-old.
Corby's sentencing on Friday will be carried live on
Australian television, the culmination of saturation coverage
that analysts say has not been seen in the Australian media for
decades.
Paul Maley of the press watchdog Media Monitors said the
reporting frenzy was comparable only to the Azaria Chamberlain
case of the early 1980s, when a baby disappeared in central
Australia and her parents were convicted of murder despite
evidence the child was killed by wild dingoes.
Tabloid current affairs shows have launched fierce bidding
wars to interview members of Corby's family and Indonesian
authorities have warned Australian reporters to back off after a
journalist tried to sneak into her jail in search of a scoop.
Unlike the Chamberlain case, famously portrayed in the
Hollywood film A Cry in the Dark starring Meryl Streep, Corby has
gained widespread public support in Australia.
The Queenslander was arrested when customs officers found 4.1
kilograms of cannabis in her luggage when she flew into Bali last
October.
She could face the death penalty under Indonesia's tough anti-
drug trafficking laws, but prosecutors have asked for a sentence
of life in prison.
Corby's defense team have argued that the drugs were planted
in her baggage after it was checked in at Brisbane airport, a
claim that newspaper opinion polls have found more than 90
percent of Australians believe.
The Australian media have portrayed Corby as a martyr figure.
A recent front page article in Sydney's Daily Telegraph under the
headline "Suffering in Silence" said she had lost her voice
because she was so drained by her ordeal.
"The story has played from broadsheet newspapers to the
tabloids, from respected commentators to gossip mags ... people
have not tired of this topic," Maley said.
He said the coverage had become a juggernaut generating its
own momentum and was "unlikely to fade anytime soon".
Theories about why the case has touched a nerve with the
Australian public abound. The respected Bulletin magazine said
many Australians, who regard Bali as their tropical playground,
believed they could innocently find themselves in Corby's
situation.
"She is one of us," it said. "That could be your sister or
daughter weeping in a foreign jail.
"If you believe her story, it could have been you or me that
landed in a Bali cell."
Maley said analysis of talkback radio coverage also found
mistrust of the Indonesian justice system, particularly following
the trials of the 2002 Bali terrorist bombers, which killed 88
Australians.
"Many resent the fact that Abu Bakar Baa'syir was sentenced to
just two years jail for his role in the Bali bombing, while Corby
faced life for being found with marijuana," he said.