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Media exploitation of the horrors of war?

Horror headlines and images of the dead without pixels from Ukraine occupy the German Press Council. The media must not take advantage of human suffering.

On February 24, Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine. Since then, war of aggression has been a hot topic on television, the internet and in newspapers. The concern of the German Press Council, as expressed during the presentation of its annual report for 2021 in Berlin, is the same that concerns the respective councils around the world. That the media could capitalize on human suffering with shocking headlines and horrific images at the expense of victims and their relatives to increase viewership and click-through rates.

It is difficult to cross-reference information from the front

Sasa Varofksi, a spokeswoman for the German Press Council, the same journalist for the Allgauer Zeitung, points out the rules of self-control that govern the document and the online press, and warns against using misleading headlines to raise additional fears or increase public awareness. During the first 3 weeks of the war in Ukraine the Press Council received about 20 complaints, one a day on average. The Council meets 4 times a year and at the next meeting articles on Ukraine will play an important role.

“For example, there were front-page headlines suggesting an impending nuclear war, and two cases also related to the fact that the media published photos of war victims without a mosaic,” he recalls. But transparency is very important, because there are few correspondents in Ukraine. Military attacks or information on killed soldiers and civilians are difficult to cross. “It is another aspect that is difficult for the media. It is clear that reporting from Ukraine, from the war zone, is very difficult for an editorial team in Germany. The same goes for information about the coronavirus. Here, too, “Authors have difficulty because they have to be transparent.”

Memories of Syria

Parallels with the war in Syria, which began in 2011 and is not over yet, are almost inevitable. Roman Potrak, executive director of the Press Council, recalls the gas attacks on the civilian population with many deaths, including children. “We have seen,” he says, “horrible photos, that one may have a different opinion as to whether their publication is justified in journalism.” Such photos also arrive from Ukraine and will not be the last, he believes. How large will be the number of complaints at the end of the year from readers of print and online media is still too early to guess. The longer the war lasts, the longer it is likely to be.

For 2021, the same applies as a year ago. The pandemic dominated the work of the Press Council. Of the 2,557 individual complaints, almost one-fifth (457) concerned reports of epidemics, vaccination side effects, number of beds in the intensive care unit or hospital. The number of complaints reached the highest number in 2021 and most of them concern publications about the coronavirus of the tabloid Bild.

Marcel Firstenau

Edited by: Irini Anastassopoulou Media exploitation of the horrors of war?

Source: Deutsche Welle

Source: Capital

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