A commentary on the publication of the indecent front-page photos of burnt dead bodies in a bus inferno by two national dailies of Nepal.
Yesterday evening, news of bus inferno in Bara has already shocked us. The ‘accident’ happened on the eve of Tarai Banda thus making a lot of us suspect that it was an attack. It was soon confirmed that at least seven died and dozens other injured. It was a bad news.
I felt more shocked and sadder this morning when I looked through daily newspapers for more on it. Two of the national dailies – Nepal Samacharpatra and Naya Patrika – carried similar photographs on the front pages that were in no way decent enough to get published at all.
The photo (click here if you really want to see the photo, but I advise you not to see) showed a side of the bus with two burnt bodies (hands/head recognizable) on the windows. Even after two hours of seeing it, when I sat for lunch, I felt like my stomach lurching about it. I do not know what had happened to the children who saw these photographs!
I was shocked because I do not know what prompted the editors of the newspaper to choose that photo.
I was sad because I was one in journalism and I feel like this is a joke on press freedom – the freedom they enjoy without a feeling of responsibility. The publication of such photos is unethical and Nepal Press Council and Federation of Nepali Journalists should at least initiate a debate, if this can not be considered a breach of their code of conduct.
As an audience, I do not want to see such photos anymore!
[As I tried to get the photo to link from this post, I found that the photo has been blurred in Naya Patrika’s site. The photo linked from this post is from Nepal Samacharpatra’s site.]
