The Broadcasting Authority has urged television and radio stations to be ethical when reporting on cases involving human tragedy, in a vaguely-worded statement that failed to reference any specific examples in which they failed to do so.
In a four-paragraph statement issued on Friday morning, the BA said that it “felt the need” to issue the reminder to radio and TV stations that stories involving human tragedy leave real impacts on people within society.
“While it is important for the public to be informed of such stories, at the same time it is important that people involved and their relatives are protected from reporting that goes beyond information,” the BA said.
“Therefore, in the past days the authority asked broadcasting stations to report while maintaining a sense of ethics, caution and empathy with respect to people impacted by current news events,” it said without elaborating or explaining what events or which news outlets it was referring to.