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Presentation 

Justice, as a pillar of democracy, faces increasing challenges in the new millennium, insofar as it has to adapt to a society in which the courts’ visibility and information is mainly conveyed by the media.

The most mediatised judicial cases are often portrayed as being periods of crisis in the justice system, while simultaneously mobilising emotions, fuelling debates and setting in motion legal and political reforms.

This seminar’s main objective is to promote and disseminate reflections surrounding the axis of relations between justice, the media and citizens, involving the participation of Portuguese and British academics, journalists and legal professionals.

We will discuss issues concerning the relations between the justice system and the media, the processes of construction of trials by media and its consequences for the public scrutiny of justice, the impacts of new media environments in the present configurations of citizens’ access to justice and information about judicial cases.
 

Programme

9:30 –Reception

Helena Machado (Department of Sociology of the University of Minho)

9:45 –Opening conference – "The mediatisation of justice: Contexts and challenges"

Conceição Gomes(Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra/OPJ)

Session I – Media and justice

Chair –Filipe Santos (Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra)

10:15 –"The media and justice: The trees and the forest"

Francisco Teixeira da Mota(Lawyer, columnist for the Público)

10:45 –"The good suspects’ justice"

EduardoDâmaso(Assistant-director, Correio da Manhã)

11: 15 – Coffee break

11:30 –"Media-justice: Inconvenient truths. Official secrecy in cases of street crimes and white-collar crimes"

Carlos Rodrigues Lima(Journalist, Diário de Notícias)

12:00 –Debate

Sessão II – New media, justice and citizen journalism

Chair –Helena Machado (Department of Sociology of the University of Minho)

14:30 –"We predict a riot? Public order policing, new media environments and the rise of the citizen journalist"

Chris Greer(City University London, United Kingdom)

15:00 –"Justice, information and communication in the new media landscape"

Lieve Gies(Keele University, United Kingdom)

15:30 – Debate

16:00 – Coffee break

Sessão III – Justice, media and citizenship

Chair –João Paulo Dias (Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra)

16:30 – "Images of justice in Portugal: The Madeleine McCann case"

Helena Machado(Department of Sociology of the University of Minho)

17:00 – "Magistrates and journalists: Representations about the mediatisation of justice"

Filipe Santos(Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra)

17:30 – Debate

18:00 – Closing session and public presentation of the book Justice, Media Environments and Social Order

João Paulo Dias (Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra)

Organisation –Helena Machado and Filipe Santos

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