The murder of a man in Manresa by two minors has been one of the prominent news stories on TV3's Telenotícies. Tuesday's news programs, both the midday and evening ones, echoed the story. This was also the case on Wednesday, when the minors had already been arrested and a minute of silence had been observed in the city. The news included statements from councilor Parlon specifying that the detainees were "Catalans born in Catalonia" and the speech of the mayor of Manresa emphasizing the seriousness of this violence perpetrated by adolescents. The case, moreover, gained relevance because far-right sectors had distorted the facts to spread hate speech, circulating false data about the origin of the detainees. Curiously, Spanish news outlets, however, have not echoed the news from Manresa. Neither La 1 de TVE's Telediarios, nor Antena3 Noticias, nor Informativos Telecinco, neither in Tuesday's nor Wednesday's editions, have reported on these events. Not a peep. Instead, it has been reported on L’informatiu de TVE, the edition broadcast as a disconnection for Catalonia. We must therefore assume that the murder has been interpreted in a "local" or "regional" context. That, allegedly, two minors armed with knives kill a man in the street is not significant enough for any criterion of newsworthiness. Not even for the youth of the alleged perpetrators nor for the biased interpretation with political intentions. In recent weeks, Spanish news outlets have been absolutely focused on the Ceuta migratory crisis. But there is a detail that demonstrates the media's disregard for the Manresa case. While ignoring the death of a man stabbed by two minors in Manresa, Telecinco and Antena 3 did report in different editions on the stabbing of two people in New York, one of whom died. They broadcasted the harrowing images of the arrest where the perpetrator was shot dead by the police. On Telecinco, for example, they also reported on a knife-point robbery in a bazaar in Los Palacios, Seville, a town with less than half the population of Manresa. They also highlighted the arrest of a robber in Castilleja de la Cuesta, a town of 17,000 inhabitants. What do these cases have in common? The mere existence of images of the events. In both the New York case and the two other Sevillian locations, video cameras captured the violent scenes. Striking images, with a sordid and furtive visual quality that adds a morbid component. The seriousness of the Manresa case, which allows for social reflection on violence, is underestimated in Spain, likely due to a lack of visual spectacularity. There are no images of the assault. However, perhaps it would have been different if the detained minors had been unaccompanied migrant minors. Then, perhaps some Spanish channels would have paid more attention.
