The following are remarks I gave
at the 2026 Restorative Justice
International (RJI) Youth
Summit on June 7, 2026, an online
event in which hundreds of young people
from around the world.
Media are supposed to serve the
public interest, inform, and educate the
public. The free press is crucial for a
viable and vibrant democracy, and for civic
engagement. However, media also violate
human rights, as they are weaponized against
marginalized and racialized communities, and
cause harm and trauma.
For example, during the era of U.S.
Jim Crow segregation, newspapers announced -
and incited - the lynching of Black people
to preserve the racial hierarchy. Black
people were and still are depicted as
criminals deserving punishment. And there is
a link between lynching, capital punishment
and the demonization of Black people in the
media. In 1989, following the unjust arrest
and trial of five innocent Black and Latino
teens for the brutal rape and beating of a
White woman in Central Park, Donald Trump
published a full-page ad in the major New
York City newspapers calling for the
reinstatement of the death penalty in New
York. Although these five boys were
innocent, it is widely believed the Trump ad
contributed to a lynch mob environment
leading to their wrongful convictions, for
which they spent years in prison.
The media are used to commit mass
atrocities, and groups of people are
dehumanized through the media. During Nazi
Germany, antisemitic publications,
editorials, cartoons and posters depicted
Jewish people as vermin, beasts and evil,
paving the way for the Holocaust that would
follow.
In the Rwanda genocide of 1994,
radio stations played a role in the
slaughter of up to 1 million people, with
radio broadcasters urging Hutu listeners to
kill the “cockroaches” - a derogatory term
used for the nation’s Tutsi minority group.
And more recently, Western media have
weaponized Islamophobia and Orientalism to
dehumanize Palestinians during the Gaza
genocide. This, as Israeli government
officials proclaimed there are no innocent
civilians in Gaza, and Israelis made TikTok
videos mocking Palestinian suffering.
Looking at the U.S., past and
present, media have amplified xenophobia and
anti-immigrant, and anti-Indigenous
sentiment. Immigrants from the Global South
have been described as dirty and violent
people who are a threat to white people and
eat cats and dogs. For years, Hollywood has
portrayed Indigenous people as savages. This
weaponization of media goes hand in hand
with racially oppressive policies designed
to wage violence against these scapegoated
groups.
Similarly, victims of police
violence, ICE violence and racial violence
face demonization and scapegoating in the
media. Police violence is rife with systemic
racism, misogyny, queerphobia and white
nationalism, and the media scapegoat these
victims, and blame them for the injury,
trauma, and death visited upon them. This
applies to Black victims such as George
Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, but
it also applies to white people – such as
Alex Pretti - and white queer people - such
as Renee Nicole Good - who were gunned down
by ICE in cold blood, and in broad daylight.
As Malcolm X once said, “If you’re
not careful, the newspapers will have you
hating the people who are being oppressed,
and loving the people who are doing the
oppressing.” In Los Angeles on May 4, 1962,
Malcolm X held the media responsible for
justifying police brutality in communities
of color:
The controlled press, the White
press inflames the White public against
Negroes. The police are able to use it to
paint the Negro community as a criminal
element. The police are able to use the
press to make the White public think that
90%, or 99%, of the Negroes in the Negro
community are criminals. And once the White
public is convinced that most of the Negro
community is a criminal element, then this
automatically paves the way for the police
to move into the Negro community, exercising
Gestapo tactics stopping any Black man who
is in this… on the sidewalk, whether he is
guilty or whether he is innocent.
But it doesn’t have to be this way
with the media, as media can become an agent
for restorative justice. Restorative
justice seeks to reform our justice
systems, and restore, heal and transform
victims, offenders and communities. The goal
is to repair the harm rather than punish the
offenders. Under transformative
Justice, an incident of harm is an
opportunity for the community to change
conditions and prevent future harm. Justice
is “invested in non-punitive
responses
to harm that seek healing, accountability,
and transformation while avoiding the
reproduction of violence and domination core
to the criminal legal system and other
carceral settings.”
Despite its history of harmful
practices and narratives, media can be a
part of the healing process and follow,
cover stories on restorative justice values:
Justice, solidarity, respect, truth,
inclusiveness, and restoration.
Restorative justice in media means
respecting the dignity
and
equality of all people, portraying people
in their full experiences, not as
one-dimensional, and providing people space
to share their emotions and build
understanding. Within the context of journalism,
restorative justice encourages equitable and
respectful conversations, transparency, and
empowers interviewees. Such a philosophy
breaks down the traditional
power
dynamics between reporter/source, and
fosters solidarity rather than superiority.
Journalists and media professionals should
engage in a process of self-reflection, and
must ask themselves why they are doing this
work and their role in the community.
Further, the news media need “sensitive and
constructive reporting on criminal
justice” - accurate, humane,
non-sensational without stigmatizing
language - given the public misunderstanding
of criminal justice system. And rather than
merely report on the problems in society,
news organizations should promote
solutions-focused journalism, also known as
constructive journalism.
There are other things we can do,
such as centering people with lived
experience, and supporting independent media
that promote social justice, human rights
and restorative justice. And we should seek
Internet justice, as social
media
platforms can repair harm by employing
restorative justice principles in their
content moderation. Given the public
mistrust of the media, these solutions will
only help the situation.
Thank you for listening, and I hope
we can continue the dialogue.
