Letter to the Hoot: just dead meat

BY gouri| IN Opinion | 23/07/2004

The photographs that appeared in the leading dailies of the burnt dead bodies of children who died in the fire in Kumbhakonam were gruesome and horrifying. Death by fire must be incredibly tortuous and painful. What the victims` parents had to undergo during the process of identification preys on the mind. And this horror was laid bare to the public repeatedly by our print media and television networks. Why? 

Can you imagine the impact on little children who see these images on television or in newspapers and magazines? Won’t they have nightmares? Why only children, the images are enough to disturb the peace of the strongest minded. In the interests of gathering fodder for news, and in competing with rivals to be the first with `Breaking News` is not the media losing sight of basic human decency? Is this sympathy for the victims? Or is this voyeurism and violation of the worst kind? Is nothing sacred or inviolate any longer? Apparently not. We are just dead meat for the media. 

The dailies and television networks which carried these pictures had no right to divest the poor children of dignity in death by publishing pictures of charred, broken and mangled bodies. They may be bodies today, but they were loved ones yesterday.  

 I ask you to recall with what ruthless regularity we see pictures of dead bodies of terrorists, criminals or their victims--alas, equal in death--which are blood-soaked, mangled, gruesome and horrific. Of bodies of unfortunate people killed in road and rail accidents. 

I cannot imagine anyone daring to publish or telecast such pictures of killed animals for fear of repercussions from animal rights activists. Is there no one to protect our rights in this matter? Is there no censorship? Is there no respect for humanity, living or dead, in the Indian press? I say the Indian press and television, because I do not recall seeing any such brutal pictures of human bodies or body parts on foreign television networks when the World Trade Centre was blown up. Unfortunately, our Indian media does not spare anyone in death, not even grieving family members in their moment of trauma and grief .

And it is reprehensible that we permit this violation to carry on. I feel ashamed as a member of the public. I appeal earnestly to all who think alike to join me and to use their influence where possible. Let us not permit this violence of the lens to continue. There must be some moral code, some ethical guidelines, that our editors and television programmers must follow.

 Gowri Mohanakrishnan
Moraghat Tea Estate,
P.O.Binnaguri
Dt. Jalpaiguri,
West Bengal 735203 

July 21, 2004