It comes as no surprise that The Sun newspaper has once again launched a campaign of abuse against a celebrity, but what’s more shocking this time is the complete disregard to the evidence and the insult their articles have on those who have suffered from domestic violence.
You would think that after the outrage they have caused throughout the world, they would tone down their bias opinions and allow male domestic abuse survivors to see this as a step forward with the way male victims are viewed.
But what do they do instead?
They publish articles branding Johnny Depp’s verdict as a ‘blow for women’. They try to speak for every abuse victim, stating ‘Johnny Depp judgement means abused women will no longer be Heard’. They launch a tirade of abuse against a man who has just lost over 6 years of his life to false allegations.
We have spoken to domestic abuse victims themselves, who wish to remain anonymous. Here is what they have to say.
The suns smear campaign against Johnny Depp makes me nervous as a survivor and as someone that’s helped other survivors. Why would I/they choose to come forward if a national newspaper constantly berates a victim? Even with clear evidence they’re tearing a victim down and it’s incredibly unnerving.
The Sun has always gone against victims as long as I can remember, I want to say I'm shocked but I'm not. I am however concerned, this really could be the reason someone doesn't report abuse. As a survivor the reason I and others support JD is because we can see the real truth, the recordings, the gaslighting, the playing it down. 'I didn't punch you, I hit you' are all examples of what being in a domestic abusive relationship is like. The fact The Sun are trying to normalise that behaviour is the real concern here.
The Sun are acting like abusers. You know when they do something bad and you mention it to them but they twist it and gaslight you saying no that’s not what happened, it was you, I was reacting to you and the more you protest the more they double down until you’re so exhausted you accept you’ll never win and give up arguing. And you spend the longest time questioning whether you are actually the one at fault after all.
The suns article is very concerning portraying that males can’t be abused and saying females will no longer be heard. All because a jury found in favour of Depp. After watching the trial and hearing the evidence it’s very clear who was the abused. As a dv survivor seeing articles like this makes me nervous of the future. What if people don’t come forward because they believe this article? What if they think what’s the point because no one will believe me.
We have also heard from those that have not been in a domestically abusive relationship themselves, but see the importance of the verdict as well as the damage that The Sun can cause.
Whilst I have been very fortunate not to have dealt with DV myself, I do know people that have, and men that have, men that have been told to “toughen up” and “get over it” and that they “can’t be a victim”. This trial has shown that men can be, and are victims, and should be able to report this, should be able to get help with this, the same as women do. Men shouldn’t be not believed because of their gender, and women shouldn’t be believed solely because of their gender. This is a positive movement and something which I hope will have a long lasting positive impact on the world and the way we treat DV survivors as a whole. The way the Sun are acting is not only damaging to JD, but to all victims, who could now fear coming forward and risking facing further abuse themselves.
I have been fortunate that I haven't been in an abusive relationship but I think the trial has opened my eyes to how society thinks only men can be abusive. I think the verdict is so important for everyone to see it can be so easy for some people to lie, allude to non existent evidence and actually believe they will get away with it. It's shown the world exactly how Narcs work and how they effortly influence the people around them.
This cruel campaign of abuse towards an innocent man needs to end. The damage it can cause for every domestic abuse survivor is catastrophic. It is real.
We can only pray that victims will be able to look past the defaming headlines, the bias and manipulative articles and the complete lack of the truth that they display.
There is currently a petition to ‘Officially Review the Judicial misconduct of JUDGE NICOL in the Johnny Depp libel case.’ It currently has over 12,000 signatures. We have linked it below.
https://www.change.org/p/the-judicial-conduct-investigations-office-a-official-review-the-judicial-m
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