Las decisiones judiciales: un dilema entre la legitimidad y la influencia de los medios de comunicación

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of the way in which the media has been influencing Colombian judicial decisions for some time now, a subject dealt with fifteen years ago by Dr. Germán Silva García in his book El mundo real de los abogados y de la justicia [The Real World of Lawyers and Justice], Volume 3—the administration of justice. The paper demonstrates the importance of revisiting a work written fifteen years ago, with the purpose of analyzing problems that appeared at that time in the judicial branch and that even now are present in Colombia, affecting the legitimacy of judicial decisions. Although it already caused controversies fifteen years ago, the media today is even more involved in judicial decisions since it is growing faster than a few years ago and can exert greater pressure on a judge, magistrate, or prosecutor to make a decision that is correct in the eyes of society and politics, leaving legal arguments in the background in order to please society.