The Press Council of Moldova examined a feature broadcast by a local TV channel, which showed pictures of a deceased child who died because of the inattention of the drunk parents, and established that the provisions of the Deontological Code were violated as the journalists cannot provide morbid details of crimes, accidents and catastrophes. The Council expressed readiness to help the network of regional broadcasters to additionally train the journalists so that they obey the deontological norms, IPN reports.
The channel Impuls TV from Soldanesti transmitted a feature about a girl who died when her inebriated mother dropped her and the child was crushed under the wheels of a cart. The feature was then broadcast by the network of regional broadcasters and by some of the national TV channels. The feature contained electronically unprocessed pictures showing openly the child.
Responding to the notification of the Press Council, the director of the mentioned TV channel said the journalists who produced the feature don’t consider that they violated the deontological norms, even if they admitted that the pictures of the dead body and the injuries sustained by the child could be omitted. Furthermore, the parents themselves posted photos of the dead child on social networking sites.
The Press Council said the use of pictures or videos showing dead children cannot be justified from editorial viewpoint when treating such subjects and runs counter to the good journalistic practices. It disapproved of the broadcasting of the morbid pictures with the aim of impressing the public and making the event more tragic so as to increase the rating.
The Council recommended the journalists and media outlets to give up covering such events as sensations and to better analyze the causes and other social and educative aspects. It offered to help the network of regional broadcasters to additionally train the journalists so that the cases involving children are covered correctly.
