Amanda Knox Latest News - Italian Magazine Gives Away Knives With Knox Issue
Amanda Knox’s prosecutors have criticized a magazine for their glossy giveaway of kitchen knives and a pizza slicer in the edition with a huge image of a sobbing Knox on the cover.
Magazine freebees usually include a coupon to accompany a restaurant expose or a free compact disc to go along with an entertainment piece. But the Oggi magazine thought it appropriate to put Knox on its cover with a “knives-giveaway”; which for obvious reasons raised eyebrows and turned heads in Italy.
Oggi is being slammed by Knox’s prosecutor Giuliano Mignini who criticized the weekly publication for its one-sided coverage during the case especially in the final stages of the dramatic appeal, which saw Knox and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, 27, cleared of murdering student Meredith Kercher, 21 who was found semi-naked with her throat slashed in the flat she shared with Knox during a study abroad trip in Perugia, Italy.
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Knox graced Oggi’s cover three times in the months leading up to the trial along with in-depth stories that questioned the police investigations as well published negative opinions on the way the case had been handled by the prosecution.
According to the Daily Mail, one newsvendor by the Trevi Fountain, who refused to give her name, said she was shocked when she saw the knives were a giveaway.
“When you think that it was a very nasty murder with a knife to have knives given away is I think in very poor taste - although having said that we did sell out of all the ones we got,” said the newsvendor to the Daily Mail.
Despite several requests to Oggi no one was available for comment and the Kercher family lawyer Francesco Maresca could also not be contacted.
In Rome half a dozen newsagents questioned said they had “sold out” of the knives although all questioned whether it was a good idea given the nature of the murder.
Heated debates sprouted up across many online forums as people dubbed Oggi’s sales tactic as inappropriate and expressed disbelief that a major media outlet would go through with such a stunt.
Comparable with popular U.S. magazine People, Oggi is a weekly publication with a circulation of more than 1 million.
