Quake reporting raises concerns of media ethics
Updated: 2008-06-11 17:19
BEIJING -- When Chongqing-based magazine New Travel Weekly featured China's May 12 earthquake, it maintained its popular themes of glamour and sex.
Scantily-clad models draped themselves over the rubble, bloodied bandages as accessories to their bikinis, tight tee-shirts and mini-shorts, under the headline "Reborn from the Ruins".
The public reaction to this display of questionable taste and insensitivity was immediate.
The outcry at the newsstands quickly reached the city government, which suspended the magazine for "rectification", and the magazine president and chief editor lost their jobs for "unethical reporting".
It was an extreme case of poor journalistic judgment, but New Travel Weekly was among the few media whose insensitive reporting during their coverage of the devastating earthquake raised concern.
The Chinese media has reacted to the disaster with unprecedented openness and determination to bring the full extent of the catastrophe to the public.
"The earthquake has been a test of the reporters," says Yu Guoming, deputy dean of School of Journalism, Renmin University.
"The quake has proved that Chinese reporters are responsible, compassionate and they put their own safety aside to bring the reporting to their audience."
However, Yu points out: "Just as a test shows one's weaknesses, the earthquake has also revealed weak journalistic ethics, the inexperience and naivety of some reporters when faced with an event of such magnitude."
Jiang Min, a policewoman in Pengzhou city near the epicenter of Wenchuan, lost 10 relatives, including her two-year-old daughter and her parents, at first became a symbol of fortitude in the face of overwhelming tragedy -- then later became the face of media exploitation.
Despite her loss, Jiang Min continued relief work with other police and soldiers.But in one television report, the reporter pressed her to answer the question, "Why are you still here?" A drawn-looking Jiang was pounded with further questions, such as, "Do you think of your own parents and daughter when you see the rescued old people and the kids?"
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