Are you sure they should say "the Catalan Pelicot"?

The news about the rapist of a twelve-year-old girl under the guardianship of the DGAIA and the details of how he recorded her subjecting her to other pedophiles has created, in the state media, an inappropriate journalistic comparison with a strikingly unfortunate communicative formula. Networks such as Cuatro and La Sexta have used the concept "the Catalan Pelicote" to refer to the accused. We saw him on Thursday in On everyone's lips, when the program asked for the details of "the Catalan Pelicot prostitution network". The same thing happened in News Four, where they spoke of the fact as "the Pelicot case of Barcelona". In Better late than never They repeated the appeal. They weren't the only ones. Radio stations like SER and all kinds of digital media have also done so. Even the RTVE website, surprisingly, uses this concept.

It's common for the most sordid and tragic cases to be labeled with a term that summarizes the story. Normally, the name of the accused or the victim is used, the place where the events took place, or some particular element or context that allows for quick identification. In this case, the fact that the accused recorded the minor with other pedophiles served as an excuse to use Pelicot's name, which refers to the scandal that was recently tried in France.

Despite the fact that both cases are extremely serious and undoubtedly atrocious, comparing them blurs the stories. In the Barcelona case, the victim is a twelve-year-old girl, aggravated by the fact that she was under the responsibility of the administration. It's important to emphasize this because the fact that this is a child abuse case that fueled an entire network of criminal activity around it can in no way be considered a secondary detail.

The comparison is the result of media impatience to find a scandal similar to the one in France. After the impact of the Pelicot case, every time that name is used, it triggers a state of alert in the viewer or reader. Pelicote It has become a catchphrase, often morbid. Applying it to subsequent crimes skews the stories, dehumanizes them, and turns them into mere labels that refer to "practices" but not to the personal tragedy or the social implications behind them. It's also unfair to Gisèle Pelicot, the victim who bears the same surname.

The unfortunate aspect is the second part of the term. The adjective Catalan to single out the new case. If this had happened in Madrid, it is difficult to imagine that the media would be talking about it. "Madrid Pelicot"It is Spanish centralism that allows itself the frivolity of geographically labeling everything that happens on the periphery of the State. It is also unlikely that the formula of Castilian-Leonese Pelicot or the "Manchego Pelicot". The daring one to speak of "Catalan Pelicot" It reveals not only a very sensationalist journalism but also a rancidly Spanish criterion.