Kaieteur News must be more responsible to victims

Jul 20, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
I will begin this letter by saying this, “With great power comes much responsibility.” This quote, I am sure, is a familiar one, and its relevance will be made clear later on in my letter.
I am a 24 year old US-based Guyanese and a recent college graduate with a degree in journalism. I have little to no experience as a working journalist; however, there were many important lessons I learned while in school.
These lessons separate serious responsible journalists who are only interested in the truth, versus those whose only aim is to sell a newspaper or to spread propaganda.
The first lesson was the Freedom of the Press and the Right to free speech. The power of free speech and press is one of the greatest powers we enjoy in the free world (although the existence of free speech in Guyana is debatable we still have it to a higher degree than most places).
In America, the power the Press and Media holds is so great, that it is often called the unofficial fourth branch of Government:1)Executive – President, 2) Legislative –Law makers, 3)Judicial – the Courts and 4)the Media. And with this power the press has, there is even more responsibility. Herein lies the second but more important lesson we learned.
ETHICS! Ethics are the rules of engagement for journalists; it’s the guide for journalists and news agencies to live up to their full responsibility to not only the readers and audience, but more so, to the people they report on.
After all, it is these people, their actions, triumphs and tribulations that become the news. So reporters must first consider their responsibility to the people in the news first. The must weigh how the pictures, words and headlines adversely affect, whether positive or negative, their lives!
And so I draw your attention to the front page of today’s, July 19, 2011, Kaieteur Newspaper. I opened the webpage to find the mangled bloodied bodies of five victims of a most horrific minibus crash. I will not use this letter to denounce the speeding by the reckless, unconscionable, depraved individuals who cause accidents such as this.
Instead, this letter is to hold the editors of Kaieteur News responsible for displaying, in such a callous heartless manner, the bodies of these victims, which include children!! How HORRIBLE!! It is still not clear if these people are still alive or dead! For all we know, this gruesome display will be the last pictures the relatives of these poor people will see of them.
WHERE WAS THE USE OF ETHICS HERE, KAIETEUR? Who decided that it was a good thing to have these people, especially CHILDREN, displayed in such manner? I ask you, What public good does this serve? Some may argue that it can serve as a deterrent to reckless drivers as an example of the dangers of speeding.
In my experience, it has not! It only serves to further desensitize the readers of our nation to violence and dehumanize the victims. Kaieteur has employed the tactless use of such shock and awe photos before.
It was a story, from a couple of years back during the most violent crime sprees our country faced, about a man who was beheaded in Agricola. Kaieteur chose to print the photo of that headless victim. This picture now exists on a website, called rotten.com, for the entire world to gape at and stare in morbid fascination.
I imagine that this, too, might become the fate of the picture of the accident victims. How awful must their relatives feel to have this as part of the memory of their loved one.
To end, I will admit that Kaieteur has usually done an admirable job in maintaining a culture of fair and balanced reporting. It is in instances like these where the editors for some reason fall back on these classless, lazy and unimaginative tactics usually reserved for less respectable and tabloid newspapers.
It causes one to wonder whether the only reasons for doing so are the pursuit of the almighty dollar. In other more developed countries, where the freedom of the press truly exists, there would be another outcome— Civil Court.
Kaieteur News can for once be grateful for the lawlessness that is the rule of the land in Guyana, because in other places the victims would be well within their rights to SUE! So I urge you, as a person who depends on this newspaper, to please remember you ethical obligation to the people involved in the stories you so valiantly report.
You have great power in your hands as the newspaper we look to for the truth, please use it wisely and responsibly!
Donnella Collison

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Kaieteur News must be more responsible to victims

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