Documentary Movie: Amanda Knox

A documentary produced by Netflix.

I found this documentary based on my sister’s recommendation, who loves watching crime documentary and movies. This movie was based on a true story. Amanda Knox was a teenager when the case occurred to her. She was an American who went to Italy and being accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher, her roommate in Italy.

She was wrongly convicted by Italy Court with Raffaele Sollecito, her boyfriend at that time. The most tragic things that happened here were they were forced to admit the crime they did not commit by the police and prosecution, and the media and public were also abusing them. The media kept saying that she was like a whore, they also published her prison diary that contained her sex partners and mocked her as Foxy Knox on social media. The incident was not just ended in Italy, but sadly internationally. The press condemned Amanda’s behavior and made a false reference by saying that she was undoubtedly Meredith’s murderer because she had a bad attitude. I was like, what the heck? She was embarrassed about her behavior that certainly did not relate to the murder. Do you think anyone deserves that?

In this case, the media only focused the camera on two of them, while they were three accused altogether in this case which another one was Rudy Guede. The media interested to dig Amanda and Raffaele stories because they seemed to have the ‘monster’ behaviors that led to the murder. While at the end of the movie showed that, the media was the one who portrayed them as monsters. In the Amanda case, the police and prosecution seemed to follow the media’s interest without doing the investigation properly, genuinely, and transparently. This proved by the report of the forensic expert that was ordered by the Italy Court of Appeal that showed that the police had made a chaotic investigation without considering the right protocol and rules when investigated the crime scene and in the lab.

The expert’s report, made Italy’s police be condemned by international people and seek Amanda’s justice.

The journalist in this movie, who also covered their case at that time, Nick Pisa stated a controversial statement about journalism ethics and he said, “At that time people were saying, ‘oh how could you do that?’ ‘how could you cover such stories?’. And yet at the same time, these are the same people who are logging onto the internet first thing in the morning, trying to find the latest details.’. He blamed society back by saying that, we are the ones who demand such monstrous news, whereas if they did not provide that in the first place, people will not know about the heinous news about Amanda and she will not be criticized like that.

The question will always, who was the one who feeds us first? Who was the one who created such cheap controversial news just to gain reader’s ratings?

Nick Pisa also proudly said that, the journalist’s attitudes always run for the news, and who posted it first, will gain recognition. They will not check the fact first because if they do that, the competitors will place that news, and their news will be left behind. And he continued saying, “that was journalist works.”.

Amanda was not tried by the competent court per se. The prosecution was incompetent and just laid the theory of the murder without solid proof. Her life was tried and judged by the media who played an active part by posting her bad sides while the court did not even finish their works. She was just 20 at that time, but her emotion was tortured even before the final judgment was given by the judge.

That’s why, when the same thing happened in Malaysia when the public condemned the judges’ views after a full trial or giving their opinions before the court did not even have a decision, we are actually the one played the judge role by punishing the accused. We are the ones who are not fair and not upholding justice.

For a person who once looking at the judge’s job, even for a little time, I can personally say, being a judge is not easy. They have to read bundles of documents and listen to the witness testimony and read the law, seeing the crime trend, make an analysis, and behind a judgment, there was a  group of researchers that assist the judge, we cannot simply say that they are not competent. They are indeed making a mistake, but that was not because of their incompetency, but because of their lack of judgments. But to criticize them, we are surely ignorant.

If you love watching true story movies, this documentary can be perfect for you.