The star printed the following on their front page, the day after the Sinai Fire
and yesterday they were busy defending that horrible ..irresponsible action after several complaints from the public:
Firstly, the body was burned beyond recognition. It was not a recognisable individual whose final privacy was being invaded.
So the body was burned beyond recognition and the helpless fellows became trophies to be shown to the whole world. Yeah yeah we #gerrit, the dead can not defend themselves and no more shame on their privacy given that they are dead beyond recognition. By that logic the respect is only to the people when they are still alive, well done the Star….By the way, have you wondered the exact reason why US did not release the pictures of the body of Osama Bin Laden despite being the most hated figure in the whole world? On the same line majority of the US newspapers hated the war in Iraq and their former cartoon President Bush but you have never seen the pictures of the bodies of the dead soldiers. There they call it National Pride and Interest, and above all the respect to the relatives of the dead.Here we call it asking tough questions!! sigh!
I guess, with the modern technology, it is just a matter of days before those bodies are identified…
Secondly, the photo had overriding news value. Pictures of dead bodies should not be published casually but this dramatic photo brought home the full horror of the devastation wreaked by the fireball on Monday morning. The fire was so intense that only the skeleton remained.
Wow…how many people do not watch horror movies at all! Many ..personally i avoid watching them, because i can’t withstand the site of the blood, or skeletons….and i know there are many people like me out there. Fortunately, those are just movies and we know for sure that none of them is real. But imagine the feeling if that kind of images are from your loved ones…brother, sister, mother, father. ooooh I forgot the Star wanted to bring such horror home. Congrats, you succeeded…
Thirdly, it is not the job of newspapers to be wishy-washy. Newspapers should inform the public and provoke debate. This shocking photo ( which was also published by the Nation on its inside pages) should cause both the public and civil servants to ask searching questions.
Jeeez my word, published by the Nation on its inside pages became an excuse… Since when did the two wrongs make right? And who said people were happy with the pictures inside the Nation pages? I guess i don’t understand the full meaning of wishy-washy but respecting the dead and the relatives of the dead can never be branded wishy-washy!
As for the public debate, the number of the people who died alone was enough to provoke the debate so craved for by the Star.. By the way how is that debate going?
Why are slum dwellers being allowed to live beside a fuel pipeline just for the sake of winning votes? Why is the pipeline not fenced off and segregated to prevent such catastrophes? In Changamwe, people are actually living on top of a fuel reservoir. What would happen if that exploded?
Great questions..but did they need the picture to ask those questions?????????????????????
I agree , real stars save lives while Gutter press fake stars sell death and horror.
I totally do not understand why this is so pissing off people. We have seen worse headlines and pictures of the dead. This was no camera trick. People were burnt in the fire and Star only reported it. As much as I don’t read The Star, I truly believe that the attacks on the paper are misplaced anger.
Again you can’t continue doing something coz you have seen the worst before. Yes, we have seen the worst headlines but then we should change and not continue doing the wrong things. Nobody is saying it was camera trick, what people are saying is as a newspaper, they need to be respectful to the human dignity. Well captured by the Media Council on their twitter account .
The Star clearly knew what they were doing in printing those pictures, I think it was necessary to get the message home about impunity and stupidity
Impunity by the Government..Stupidity on the people.. Yes your right but i think there are better ways to do it. Scaring people like that might work, but if you are in the shoes of the relatives of the people who died, it might not be that cool
The pictures are shocking and macabre but they do not disrespect human dignity at all. The pictures from Abu Ghraib were disrespectful to human dignity, for example. These were not. They are factual representations of the tragedy on the ground. Yes, they are hard to see but that’s the point. It should move us to action against those responsible, not to calling for some meaningless “respect to be shown”.
As for your concern about the relatives, I think the actual *fact* that your loved one is dead is more horrifying than a *picture* of your dead loved one. Stop claiming offence on behalf of others.
BTW the reason the then US administration did not want to show soldiers’ dead bodies is because they did not want Americans to be reminded that every day American soldiers were *dying* in an unnecessary war and then vote to end it. Nothing to do with human dignity, all political, so that’s a poor example.
Finally, I sincerely hope you recognize the utter hypocrisy of you reproducing the picture here on your blog. If you believe what you write, why don’t you take the picture down!?
Joy I am with you on one thing, Kachwanya’s mistake is repeating what has already been done, publishing the already thought provoking pictures.
That, however does not water down the fact that the media house did a very huge wrong. A place with media guidlines, an Editor and company principles, please dont equate The star with Kachwanya’s blog.
The Star ought to apologize to Kenyans for hurting their pride. You know very well this goes on to bring a negative image of Kenya as a whole “A country of burning slums”. “Factual representations” as you call them can be expressed very well with words, pictures can evoke very painful memories, if you dont believe so, try taking a picture…..no, lets leave it there.
The pictures from Abu Ghraib were about people being tortured naked.. poor example considering what we are talking about here.
“claiming offence on behalf of others” The star would not be defending themselves if people were not complaining. So in that, there are so many people who need to stop claiming offence on behalf of others. I wonder whether all people complaining are all wrong while it is only the star and you who are right!
“*fact* that your loved one is dead is more horrifying than a *picture*
of your dead loved one”
So it is ok, the loved ones are already dead, just rub it on their faces!
“US administration did not want to show soldiers’ dead bodies is because
they did not want Americans to be reminded that every day American
soldiers were *dying* in an unnecessary war and then vote to end it”
If that was real reason, do you think the media houses would keep quiet about it? And if they do, then it means they are siding with the Government on that one. Plus what we know , each major media house in US clearly lean on a certain side of the political divide. It is hard for them to keep quiet to keep the Government in power unless they are supporting the Government of the day. Clearly the famous National interest and common sense are be used there.