Although doctors have assessed that Jordi Pujol was not in a physical or cognitive condition to participate in the trial, the National Court has refused to exonerate him and is requiring him to participate remotely. From a television perspective, this has resulted in a very close first look at Jordi Pujol, very vulnerable and glued to the computer screen. The programs have already selected this image as the primary and emblematic one of the proceedings. Pujol's face, pressed against the computer camera, his nose practically touching the screen, will become an icon of the trial. Beyond the reasonable doubts about whether the former president has adequate hearing of what is happening in the courtroom, this image is by no means neutral. On Monday, Toni Cruanyes opened the Evening news with this close-up projected onto one of the enormous vertical screens to his side, oversizing the image. Performing one of those theatrical displays typical of Sesame Street In the segment dedicated to us viewers, the presenter said: "Jordi Pujol testified via videoconference, and that's the image we saw of him," proof that this framing is unusual and provokes a certain amount of astonishment. On Tuesday morning, Ana Rosa Quintana also used it, choosing precisely the moment when Jordi Pujol sniffled, accentuating the decrepitude that the scene already suggests.
Pujol's very first plan in the trial ends up being taken out of the judicial context and used independently, as an emblematic image of a spectacle. The National Court provides the technical means, but does not control the subsequent use of the image. The court enables the teleconference as a procedural resource: the judicial system guarantees Pujol's attendance at the hearing, but does not protect him from the media transformation to which he is subjected. Therefore, Jordi Pujol is subjected to the logic of television dramatization, which is unrelated to the strictly judicial purpose.
Pujol, collapsed before the screen in a state of severe frailty, is used almost as a visual verdict. It is as if this exposure were part of the punishment to be served. The ethical question is whether Jordi Pujol is aware of his media exposure under these conditions. He knows perfectly well that he is participating in a trial. But is he aware that he is being constantly exposed on television, live? It is worth asking to what extent this circumstance violates his rights. This use of his image has implications for his dignity, not as president, but as an elderly person with deteriorating cognitive faculties, as diagnosed by forensic experts. Every person in a trial should have the right to be presented as a subject and not as a degraded visual object, which is what is happening now. Not only are we facing the situation of a man deemed unfit to stand trial being put on trial, but he is also being exposed in a media environment that he neither controls nor understands.
