Collateral Damage

At what cost? Today we ask ourselves as journalist at what cost do we make newspapers sell. In the wake of the recent incidents we as journalist find ourselves questioning our actions. Many readers turn a blind eye to the gory images published in the newspaper. There were many articles published, 15 to 19 stories daily carrying the same theme, stories of the victims, their families, their communities etc. Today we take a look at it in the light of human rights violation. Till date there is no clear law on the publishing of gory images of blast / natural disaster victims.

Let us come straight to the argument. As a human do you think you have the right to be shown in a decent way after your death? Makes you wonder doesn’t it? If you live a life of dignity you should have the right to be shown with dignity. Nobody would like to find images of your brother, sister, mother, father or loved one in a way most undeserving to the life they lived. Half mutilated body parts were flashed over national, international papers not one of them blurring out images of the deceased.

It is a tough decision to be made on the part of the editors, do we blur out images and be lauded for our ethics or do we join in the herd and do what others are doing? Anyway the other newspapers are publishing such images and nobody seems to mind it. Readers want information and the more they get it the more content they are. It’s like a wild fire and the rights of the deceased get burnt in collateral damage.

Between this need of information and market competition we as journalist have lost out on a silent war. It is up to us to determine if we want to change things because even though it may seem like a little it goes a long way. A simple pixel effect can make it easier on a victim’s daughter to go through the paper the next day. 

By Madeeha Naqeeb