Media needs to be more sensitive when reporting on tragedies

 

“With great power comes great responsibility.” A cliché, I know, but it makes the point, and its obviousness might even be amusing.

But do you know what isn’t funny? When children lose a father, a wife loses a husband, and a mother loses a son. We’ve all read the recent news of motorcyclist Amirul Hafiz Omar being killed in a drink-driving case.

He left behind a wife and three small children. The driver, R Saktygaanapathy, has been charged with murder.

What happened was terrible, and that’s why drink driving needs to be a serious offence.

Short of capital punishment, I think people who are guilty of drink driving need to be given the heaviest penalty because it is irresponsible and dangerous. Come on, we live in an era of ride-sharing apps, so it’s not difficult to make the right choice.

We also need to stop calling incidents involving drink driving as accidents. An accident is when something happens unintentionally. Drink driving incidents are not accidents because the drunk driver made an intentional choice when they decided to get behind the wheel.

Graphic images

As important as this issue is, it really isn’t the point of why I am writing my piece today. What I would like to highlight is how some news channels have been playing the video footage of the tragic incident on their platforms.

I understand that reporting the news needs to be factual and credible, but the media needs to be responsible in how it chooses to do this. The visual of the incident is graphic and gruesome, even if I were to describe the video in text.

Some news outlets blurred out the victim’s body but still showed the entire clip; this was still very distasteful. One mainstream television station put the clip on a loop the entire time the news presenter was reading the story, which was horrible.

I am just a member of the public with no ties to the victim or his family, and yet, I felt uncomfortable. Honestly, I was disgusted watching it. So, can you imagine how the family members would feel to see this tragic moment being spread like this?

Insensitively pushing for best shot

I remember during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the effects devastated several countries, with Malaysia also hit badly, and there were many deaths.

One family in Kedah was having a picnic on a beach in Penang when the tsunami struck. Zulkifli Noor lost five of his children that tragic day. I watched and read the news reports for days.

That same mainstream television station mentioned above aired a news package in which they visited the family. There was a clip of an interview with the father. He looked and sounded incredibly sad as he described what happened.

Then, there was a clip of his wife sobbing uncontrollably. A microphone was in her face, and we could hear the reporter asking her questions. Of course, she couldn’t answer, but the reporter kept on asking.

ADS

That made me upset. I felt that the reporter was very insensitive, and so were the news editors who allowed the package to air. I ended up calling the television station to complain. My complaint was duly noted.

No overcensorship though

So it was good that Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil raised the issue recently and said that the press needs to regulate and find the balance between news reporting and showing visuals that are too graphic and bloody.

However, I don’t think that there needs to be systematic censorship or rules by the authorities. Individual news organisations should handle this internally because it is an issue of ethics rather than law.

Journalists need to be responsible when it comes to issues like this. Yes, we do need to report everything factually and clearly. But we also need to be empathetic. I’m sure the story can be told well without being gory and sensational.

Road accident victim Amirul Hafiz Omar

My heart goes out to Amirul’s family and friends. I do hope that justice will prevail. But I also understand that whatever it is, their father and husband is gone - all because of one irresponsible individual.

And the news media needs to understand that this is a story that involves the lives of people and not just content. So be sensitive and responsible when conveying the story. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.