Crossing the Line: Why Publish Death Photos?

In the midst of stiff competitions within the media world, not only among media organizations but 

PHOTO BY: Antoinette Herrmann

with everyday people who now double up as publishers in themselves, it is becoming increasingly common for core journalism principles to be ignored by the professional media in their effort to remain relevant. One area of coverage in which the media have incurred the public's wrath over and again for ethical violations is death. This is particularly true in Africa, where culture and journalism principles often clash.

In June 2013, an obviously unhappy daughter of Nelson Mandela, fed up with the media frenzy around the hospital where her father was on life support, compared the media's determination to break news of Mandela's death to "vultures" waiting to have the remaining carcass of the buffalo that the lion devours. The media from all over the world camped outside the Pretoria hospital where the former South African president was on admission; filming everything and anything they could, including family members getting in and out of the hospital. Mandela's oldest daughter thought their behavior amounts to disrespect of her father. The reality however is that, no news organization wanted to be outdone by another in attracting viewers and breaking the big news.

A section of the Ghanaian population was shocked in November 2013 when they woke up to a newspaper publication of the lifeless body of a prominent politician and government official, Paul Victor Obeng, on a body tray at the morgue. The photo was part of the Daily Guide's story on Obeng's death. The National Media Commission of Ghana issued a statement condemning the decision to publish that photo. The NMC argued that the photo was of no public interest. One of the sources cited by the commission to back its argument was article 12 of the Ghana Journalists Association code. It states: "A journalist shall obtain information, photographs and illustration only by straightforward, means. The use of other means can be justified only by overriding considerations of the public interest." The controversial photo was secretly taken at the morgue by an unidentified hospital worker whom the publication had contracted to do so for it.

The Daily Guide stood by its decision to publish the photo, arguing that the deceased was a public figure who met his death in a very unusual way. Obeng suffered an asthma attack in the middle of the road while driving all by himself. A taxi driver who came across him transported the government official to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. Aba Wood, a teacher by profession and an avid news consumer, sees nothing wrong with Daily Guide's story. "Why are we behaving like foreigners," she asks in response to the criticisms meted out to the publication. "Don't we always display our dead for public viewing and bury them in an equally public manner," she asks.

"I wasn't very surprised by the Daily Guide's behavior," says Prince Ofori-Atta, digital media editor of the France based Africa report. Ofori-Atta also looks at the issue from a cultural lens, pointing to the very public nature by which Ghanaians traditionally handle funerals and how liberally they display mortal remains for viewing during this occasion.  Unlike Wood however, he condemns the paper's decision to get that photo taken; much more, publish it. Pointing to radio talk shows that dedicated their programs to the issue for days, Ofori-Atta noted that most callers didn't even understand why the media commission was upset. "It is a clash between culture and professional principles," he noted.  

The P.V. Obeng death photo publication isn't the only shocking thing done by a news organization recently in Ghana relating to a death. In November 2012, the death of a former vice president of Ghana, Aliu Mahama, was reported by a leading broadcaster, MultiMedia Ghana Group. Shortly after the newsbreak, the vice president's family members issued a public statement that he wasn't dead. They went on to threaten the media organization with a lawsuit for causing them distress by their "false" pronouncements.




Stephen Anti of Multimedia Group Ghana on a reporting

assignment in Philadelphia, U.S. PHOTO by Antoinette
Herrmann. 2014

Following so much anger and condemnation from the public and other news networks, MultiMedia retracted its statement and apologized to the veep's family and to Ghanaians as a whole. It turned out that a medical doctor had told some MultiMedia reporters that the vice president was dead but he meant it clinically. "In a series of emergency editorial meetings, we agreed that our decision to make that announcement was rushed and poorly judged," says Stephen Anti, a news editor at MultiMedia and communications professional who has worked with the U.S. State Department as a media specialist under PEPFAR. "We should have paused to rethink the fact that the patient was still on life support, which meant he wasn't officially dead," Anti admits. "But our thoughts were highly focused on breaking the news, which we believed we had." Audio interview featuring news editor and media specialist, Stephen Anti.

MultiMedia also acknowledged violating article 16 of the GJA code, which states: "In case of personal grief or distress, journalists should exercise tact and diplomacy in seeking information and publishing." It took four more days before the vice president was pronounced dead.

Long before the digital revolution, the news media all over the world still got into trouble for bad judgments and ethical breaches. These have only taken new forms in a new media world where anybody can easily create content, report and spread news anytime, from any place and very fast. To say the digital revolution has brought about stiff competition in the media world is an understatement. The pressure on the highly commercialized traditional media to remain relevant is enormous. This is even truer in a new system where the groups that pose a great threat to the old establishment are largely untrained and have a raw approach to sharing information that naturally attracts large audiences. In light of the huge attention contents gathered under this new approach attract among audiences, it is becoming common for the professional media to compromise their principles in an effort to remain relevant.
                                                                     Find Audio in link below:

Stephen Anti: News Editor & Media Specialist.

Listen to audio interview with Stephen Anti on journalism ethics. Anti is a news editor with Multimedia Ghana Group and media specialist. He is a former employee of PEPFAR. Stephen Touched on two issues involving journalism ethics on the reporting of death news. He however mentioned a third case not related to death but of equal importance as far ethics are concerned.