THE LAND OF SHOCKING NEWS IMAGES
When it comes to printing explicit images to accompany news stories one or two of Thailand's newspapers don't hold back. This example, from the front page of Wednesday's Thai Rath shows the dead bodies of two men killed in a car. The caption indicates they had been drink-driving.
Thai Rath is the number one-selling newspaper in the Kingdom with around 1 million sales per day. It's also ranked in the top 50 newspapers in the world by circulation.
There's no doubt images like that would never appear in the print media in North America or Europe, but the shock value alone must have some impact of the readers here.
4 comments:
This has been their selling point for decades. I remember they used to, at least, outline white on the bodies so that it wouldn't look too distress.
However, it reflects on the readers as well. They may not all like it but they don't complaint about it either.
Hi Andrew,
Does Thailand not have a code of ethics for publishers to follow in order to protect both the victims and public?
Sanne
Pong, thanks for your comments (and great cat pics, by the way).
I think the fact they're the best-selling newspaper says everything we need to know.
Sanne - hi againt thanks for stopping by. Some publishers do have their own voluntary Code of Ethics but none that is really enforceable by law. Thailand certainly does have laws of libel and defamation, etc, that would allow victims to seek redress.
Half the newspapers are either gory blood soaked scenes or scantily clad girls. I saw a horrible picture yesterday on the front page of one paper - looked like a lady cut in half by a traffic collision. A crowd of people gathered around the scene.
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