MEMORIES OF A MEDIA BACKLASH
The current controversy surrounding journalists at News International looks like spreading to The Sunday Times and The Sun. There's now a real danger that honest and law-abiding media professionals will be tarred with the same brush and treated as criminals.
But that's happened before. I was working as chief photographer for a local newspaper in the U.K. on the morning after the death of Princess Diana. It was a Sunday and the diary of events was busy, but one event - a teddy bears picnic at a country park - was missing a confirmed time so I called the event organiser. Even at that stage - just hours after the fatal crash in Paris - the media and photographers more specifically - were being blamed for her death.
"Actually, we've changed our mind. We don't think it will be appropriate to have a press photographer at our event," was the response. The event went ahead, as I recall, but without press coverage.
A sad but true fact was that local newspaper press photographers - arguably the trusted eyes and ears of a local community - were viewed in the same light as paparazzi snappers who spend their days hounding celebrities. My fear now is that decent journalists will be treated in the same way as those who have been accused of serious misdemeanours at News International.
1 comments:
I'm sorry you were treated that way after Diana's death. Sometimes it seems like there is a tendency to always blame the journalist when something goes wrong. One time I wrote a feature about a new cafe that opened up in my college town, but after it was published, the owner complained that I brought negative attention to his business... even though I said nothing but positive things about it.
I really feel bad for the honest, hard-working journalists here in Thailand who are automatically perceived as nasty because of systemic issues in Thai media. Any journalist who is threatened, harassed, or mistreated in any way here should report the incident to the authorities, Reporters Without Borders, and even think about hiring a Thailand lawyer. Journalists do not deserve to be treated like this.
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