Amanda Knox

Some sources have argued that the pre-trial publicity and tabloid-style coverage tainted the public perception of Knox and may have prejudiced the trial. The professional and lay judges who decide the verdicts in Italian court cases are not sequestered during the trial and are allowed to read news articles about the case.
News coverage of the Kercher murder trials by Italian and British tabloid newspapers has been criticised as consisting of "character assassination" and "demonisation" of the defendants. Author Candace Dempsey, in her book Murder in Italy, lists a number of examples of what she calls falsehoods and distortions in the press reports about the case. Knox's family engaged the services of David Marriott of Gogerty Stark Marriott, a Seattle-based public relations firm, to address what they felt was misinformation about Knox in the media.
On 10 May 2011, Perugia Shock, a blog written by Frank Sfarzo that had been critical of prosecutor Mignini and Perugia law enforcement's conduct in the Kercher case, was shut down by court order. The order was granted by a Florence court to Mignini on the grounds of alleged defamation. The Committee for the Protection of Journalists sent a letter to the Italian government protesting the action. The blog's content was later restored on a new host.