Copyright (c) 2022 Alexandra Pérez Jiménez, Reynell Badillo Sarmiento
Legitimizing transitional justice: an analysis on the role of the press and electoral politics in Colombia, the Philippines, and Kenya
Usually, academic literature and some political sectors understand transitional justice as a desirable process, as it aspires to lead societies towards more just arrangements of organization and coexistence and to overcome violence. However, the adoption of alternative models of justice and the search for historical truths -sometimes not shared by society as a whole- may boost the emergence of old and new ideological cleavages and interest groups to discredit these processes. This article attempts to understand what the narrative frameworks were used by the press and electoral politics sectors to legitimize or delegitimize transitional justice mechanisms in Colombia (2016), the Philippines (2014), and Kenya (2008), respectively. For this, we analyzed 66 press pieces and 24 political statements, which we then classified among those supporting or resisting transitional justice. We found that the press can be a sounding board for the narratives adopted by politicians and that resistance to transitional justice mechanisms can seek to discredit them, but in other cases, it can be oriented to strengthen transitional processes. Thus, the il/legitimacy of transitional justice processes derives both from the ideological currents rooted in society, as well as from the interests of certain political actors threatened by the transition.
Copyright (c) 2022 Alexandra Pérez Jiménez, Reynell Badillo Sarmiento
