Margol’s blues

Tzanani deserves to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
Margalit Tzanani in court311 (photo credit: Yossi Zeliger)
Margalit Tzanani in court311
(photo credit: Yossi Zeliger)
Did entertainer Margalit (Margol) Tzanani resort to underworld mediation and subsequently to mob extortion services to collect large debts owed her? We don’t know. This is what police allege but police claims – hyped and resonated though they be in the sensationalist press – are a long way away from a conviction. Tzanani deserves to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Indifference or complacency are luxuries we cannot afford given the symbiotic dynamics of media manipulation by the police and the scandal-mongering that feeds on that manipulation while amplifying it at one and the same time. The Tzanani case is hardly the first in which we witness the mutually beneficial media hullabaloo and police alacrity to abet and intensify the lurid commotion.
Tzanani, her innocence or guilt notwithstanding, is only the latest victim of crass police publicity maneuvers and the derivative media circus. The uninhibited zeal to grab headlines and boost ratings can hurt anyone, but the greater a suspect’s fame, the greater incentive for glory-craving cops and sleaze-spreading tabloids to collaborate.
Our police, Prisons Service and prosecution all play to the gallery and fall over themselves in their fervor to spill the beans. This peculiar style of police work and legal procedure – via tendentious, deliberate leaks – was always intolerable, regardless of the nature of the material involved and whom it favored or harmed.
Often we learn of what happens during interrogations while suspects are still being grilled. Mostly the leaks consist of little more than innuendo, but this can be devastating for defendants in a small country such as ours.
Even professional judges can be affected by sensationalist extravaganzas. To that must be added the regular practice of submitting “confidential material” to judges in chambers rather than in open court, which leaves defendants defenseless. Our judiciary is disturbingly accommodating to the police.
In the final analysis, the buck stops with the police. In this country, when police investigators deem someone guilty, it’s almost certain that person won’t get off.
Incredibly, in serious felony trials judges accept the police premise most of the time. This puts particular onus on both policemen and prosecutors to clean up their acts.
Leaks must stop precisely because they enhance police prestige, sell papers and raise ratings, color judicial opinion and break suspects’ spirits. It was no coincidence that Tzanani’s mug shot, emblazoned her inmate’s number, found its way to the front pages. It achieved its purpose.
When the singer saw it, she broke down and wept.
Her humiliation couldn’t be more tangible. The interrogators could expect this to achieve what bullying tactics didn’t.
The police’s promise – significantly issued only after the attorney-general expressed outrage – to investigate the Prisons Service over the mug-shot incident doesn’t mitigate its gravity. The Prisons Service’s contention that “this does not reflect the organization’s conduct or commitment to dignity and privacy” rings hollow and disingenuous in view of numerous past infractions.
This entrenched culture of leaks is wrong on every possible level. First and foremost it violates the basic rights of citizens – be they ordinary folk or celebrities.
But beyond that, the spectacle of police cliques – and at later stages prosecutors as well – joining forces with trusted cronies in the print and electronic media, exposes an unseemly reality of power plays and one-upmanship, where points are often scored at the expense of human beings and civic virtue.
Justice or the appearance thereof isn’t always the top priority. Too often the law appears not to apply to those ostensibly enforcing it. Such an atmosphere allows a slew of aberrations and is symptomatic of festering malaise.
This obviously is a complex issue for the media. Tarring it with one brush is counterproductive. Nonetheless, the affect of the media on due process is a weighty concern, especially when the reputation of people and their right to a fair trial are compromised.
Hackneyed as freedom-of-expression catchphrases are, nobody wants a muzzled press. Therefore, a minimal level of media self-control is required. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if outright disrespect for individual rights results in new legislation barring the publication of the name of any suspect pre-indictment.