Airing our dirty linen : competition between human rights and crime discourses in Jamaican media

Abstract

In March 2001, seven young men were killed during a police raid in Braeton, St. Catherine, Jamaica. The police version of events describe a shootout, where the officers were defending themselves. Neighbour's versions of events contradict police reports. They insist that the sixty police executed the youths.

In the weeks and months that followed, these events and the contradictory versions of events sparked a vigorous public debate about crime, criminals, police and human rights in Jamaica. On the one side were the police and their supporters, who believed that the police were justified in killing the young men, in the reported shoot-out. On the other side, human rights activists, the families of the dead men, intellectuals, among others questioned the police report and called for an independent inquiry.

This project looks at the course of the discourse competition around crime and human rights in the Jamaican media to make diagnosis of the state of the Jamaican public sphere. The central questions raised here involve how Human Rights Organisations (HROs) achieve their campaign goals, and the difficulties that may arise - such as state resistance and even contradictory public belief systems.