It was the celebrity trial of the year. The verdict has been in since Wednesday evening: Amber Heard was found guilty of defamation. Rarely has a court dispute been discussed so intensely online and those involved – especially Amber Heard – defamed. The press comments on the verdict.
For the “Spiegel” Marc Pitzke commented under the heading “They believed the man”: “So they (largely) believed the man. That is the conclusion of this sensational US trial, which was not just about who abused and slandered whom. But not least also about whether the
The cause of ‘John C. Depp II vs. Amber Laura Heard’ was initially just a question of freedom of expression on paper: was Heard allowed to write what she had written about Depp? But the trial quickly became the ‘witch trial of the digital age’ – and a mudslinging, in which both sides unveiled the details of their toxic relationship to the world, trivializing the tragic subject of sexual, physical and emotional abuse into an entertainment circus. In the end, it came down to who seemed more believable. In other words, who gave the best show in court.”
Lena Karger commented on the verdict for the “Welt”: “The process sparked a wildness in people that is reminiscent of sharks in bloodlust. For weeks, a woman who was an alleged victim of sexual violence was humiliated, insulted and parodied. The trial also revealed text messages from Depp, in which he spoke of burning and then raping Heard’s body.
That didn’t change anything at the reception on TikTok and Instagram. Maybe deep inside we are even more medieval than MeToo. In the intoxication of blind greed for entertainment, a woman was publicly shredded. Will the hangover and shame follow after the party when the video snippets slowly settle down? Maybe we can also forgive our inner predator, because the show was simply good. Everything fitted so nicely.”
Speaking to the New York Times, Jessica Bennett said: “Depp may be the bigger winner in this case as he was awarded $10.35 million compared to Heard’s $2 million. But the truth is, there are no real winners here.
The trial brought to light Depp’s past of substance abuse and violent outbursts. His text messages, read aloud about his ex-wife, were so crude that they cannot be reprinted here. Heard admitted hitting Depp in what she described as self-defense. And she was forced to share graphic details of alleged physical and sexual assaults. She has also received death threats.
Meanwhile, victims of domestic violence have watched this case with horror. It seems we haven’t gotten any wiser when it comes to the complicated and sometimes messy realities of intimate partner abuse. If anything, we’ve perpetuated every little cliché. The process has no new understanding of the
Even after all our declarations that we’re better now, that we’ve learned from the treatment of women like Monica Lewinsky or Britney Spears, we’re no closer to being the kind of culture that doesn’t televise events like this that does not capitalize on the misfortunes of celebrities who do not delight in seeing a woman fall. As Lewinsky put it in an essay for Vanity Fair this week, we’re all guilty.”
Kara Alaimo commented for the US broadcaster “CNN”: “The result of this process affects far more than Depp and Heard, because it shows how much our society has changed since the peak of the
The lawsuit began when Heard claimed she was a public figure representing domestic abuse. Now she’s become a public figure, representing the societal abuse against women who dare speak their minds – and how far we’ve come from the glimmer of hope a few years ago that the
Speaking to Britain’s Guardian, Moira Donegan said: “The verdict was announced on Wednesday finding that Heard maliciously slandered Depp when she described herself as a victim of domestic violence. Bizarrely, the same jurors found that one of Depp’s attorneys slandered Heard when he said her account of the abuse was “a scam”. […]
The strange, illogical and unfair ruling means that Heard will sanction Depp’s alleged abuse and punish Heard for speaking out. It will have a devastating impact on survivors, who will now be silenced with the knowledge that they cannot speak out about their experiences of violence at the hands of men without facing a ruinous libel lawsuit. In that sense, women’s freedom of speech has just been curtailed quite a bit. […]
The trial has turned into a public orgy of misogyny. While most of the hate is nominally directed at Heard, one cannot help but feel that it is actually aimed at all women – and especially those of us who are at the height of the…
