Saturday, September 5, 2009

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Denying YSR "Death with Dignity"

In the height of "breaking news" era, mediamen fail to provide "Death with Dignity" by publishing gory images of vicitims of accidents.
Questions:
1. What is the purpose of publishing such gory images?
2. In accidents, the victims body may not be covered well...thus denying "dignity"
3. Blood & brain pouring out of the body...do these editors have any idea of impact of such images on young minds?
4. Will the editor who approved this photo for publication, permit similar photos of his near and dear ones body?
(Photo of mangled body of Sri YSR, then CM of Andhra...published by most newspapers/ TV channels...clear violation of ethics of Journalism/ Forensic Medicine). Photo has been blurred to lessen the impact by this blogger.
===================
Related issue: Dead bodies & photography, an analysis...by Shakuntala Rao (a journalism ethics professor at SUNY University in Plattsburgh, New York) pointed out that in the case of showing graphic images of death, media in India are far more brazen.
She pointed to an example of a child who was abused at his school in an Indian village.
“This child goes to school and he’s beaten up by his teachers. He’s beaten up so severely that he dies,” she said. “So the parents actually bring the body for display to the cable channels.” The graphic images of the dead child became a major part of a news story about the abuse of children by untrained teachers at rural schools. read more
===================
Dignity in Death