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Ethics in publicity

Aggravating situations does not fall within the line of duty of the media whose key obligation is to give an unbiased report on incidents that hold a prime importance in every citizen’s life. In a scenario like this, it is high time the local media institutions renew their methods of reporting crime; for it seems their reporting has been doing more harm than good.

It was not very long ago that the ascending suicide rate was directly blamed on the media for their sensationalized reporting and giving away too much information; this became the very noose for many a depressed youth who were looking for ways to end their lives. The reports that were released by the media regarding suicide were highly dramatized that, rather than discouraging any such attempts, it only upsurged the temptation. This depressing process of fanning the flames only ended up with all the media institutions coming to a consensus of not reporting suicide unless otherwise it leads to repercussions that are of importance.

When reporting the recent incident where a ten-year-old girl was brutally abused at an exam centre in Telijjawila, some media institutions found material for a drama of a few episodes that took a considerable time in their news bulletins. Ideally, their spotlight ought to have been on the fact that such unpardonable crime occurred, and not how it was done. What escaped their hawk eyes, is the fact that taking the perpetrator’s point of view, deliberately or otherwise, and giving away the tactics will only last in drastic consequences.

Be it a child abuse, an abduction, killing or even the recent grease devil phenomenon, the responsibility of any mass media should be to report such incidents with a dose of discretion, rather than going to the extent of elaborating on the manner in which the crime was committed. Teaching criminal techniques and sharpening the criminal expertise should not be a priority of any media organization.

Also people who read papers or watch news bulletins do not expect them to be in the shape of Agatha Christie novels, nor should any of such an organization use the tears of agony of a little girl and her family for cheap publicity. Any media institution that calls itself ethical and is duty-bound to its readers, listeners and viewers should not make the suffering of one person, a sensation to the other.

However, if the necessity arises to report an incident at length, the emphasis should be on preventing such unfortunate occurrences and protective measures taken by institutions that look into the welfare and rehabilitation of victims. Their focus should be on educating the public on how to be safe rather than graduating criminals.

Be it a newspaper, radio or even a television channel, news should not be action-packed thrillers, the formation of which sometimes idolizes the perpetrators. While reporting the truth, the media should not belittle their power of influencing the public to be just and law-abiding, a point that will soon be extinct if they do not know the margins between exaggeration and fact, fiction and reality.

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