A few years ago, when a directive from the courts mandated that the pictures and names of minors were not to be used by the media in order to protect the identities of these persons, Amandala complied.
Not too long thereafter, the pictures of two minors, with their names, appeared on the front page of one of our city newspapers. We waited to see the outcome. We wanted to see how the courts would sanction that newspaper.
When nothing happened, we sent a reporter to the magistrate, drawing her attention to the problem. Her response was that she had not seen the paper that contained the offending material. We directed her to the date of the publication, but again, nothing happened. To this day, nothing has been said about the transgression by that newspaper.
If it had been this newspaper that had erred, we are sure the matter would not have been passed over so indifferently.
Subsequent to this, there have been many instances where other media organs have done things that should have earned them the censure of the public. Again, nothing happened, and these media organs continued on their way publishing material that for sure would have had the well-known and self-appointed “guardians” of the self-same media howling at our doors.
Over the last few months, more and more pictures have been appearing in the media that would be described as “inappropriate,” because of their gruesome content – murdered people exposed in all the gory details. The last such incident occurred in a city newspaper dated Sunday, April 15, 2012, not even a week ago. On its front page was the full-body picture of a man who had been shot to death. He was lying on the pavement, with blood dripping over his face.
There was no outcry, from anyone. No “guardian” of the media was foaming at the mouth about the “insensitivity” of the picture, and the “pain it brought to the family.” We repeat. No one said anything publicly. No one. And that was just a week ago.
When we told reporters who have joined us that Amandala is held to a different standard from every other media organ, they did not understand. As one told us in the week, “Now we do.” The injustice of the system, the hypocrisy of our detractors were apparent even to them.
We come now to the matter of our headline article of this Wednesday. In hindsight, with 20/20 vision, in the light of day, we realized that what we had done was precisely what all the other media organs have been doing, and have been doing for a long time.
Our intent was not to cause further pain and embarrassment to the victim’s family, and for this we offer our sincere apologies. Late into the night, we forgot that we are held to a different standard, and treated the story simply as another story, when we should have approached the matter differently.
We expect hostility from our enemies, but other sections of the media have fallen flat on their individual asses. The story has become what the editor of this newspaper did, instead of what caused a young girl in the prime of her life to commit what appears to be suicide. Their focus should have been to find out what exactly were those circumstances that led her to this point. They should have spoken to her classmates, her intimate friends, her relatives, anyone who could help piece together the tragedy, which has become all too common these days. No one did. Her erstwhile boyfriend is blameless. He is not responsible for her death, not in the least.
The reason for this kind of investigation is so that we, as a society, can better understand what we have become, how it is that a young person, with all her life ahead of her, can apparently take her own life because she felt that she had become unloved.
She had her family and close friends, yet she felt unloved and unwanted enough to end her own life.
Therein lies the tragedy, the answer to which we must find. It is foolish to believe that there are not many more young people in our society who are near to believing what this young woman believed, that suicide is the answer to their problems. In fact, the record is there to indicate that a number of young people have already taken that route. What investigations have there been to find out why?
You all who are loved and cherished, try to imagine yourself in such a situation: you feel that no one, no one at all loves you, to the point where you become so depressed that you shoot or hang yourself, or drink poison.
Incidentally, in the week of this young woman’s death, there were two more suicides, both in the Toledo District.
Suicide is a terrible thing. It is so irreversible, so tragic. While no one can bring back the victim, we feel that trying to understand the conditions of her living, and the reasons for her death could help some other young person avoid the terrible decision of committing suicide. That should have been the role of the other media, instead of trying to shoot the messenger.
On the other hand, the Belizean media, generally speaking, appear to have gradually gotten out of hand. We, as usual, listen to our readers. We have always done so, and we always will. And we are never so puffed up that we cannot say to a family who have been hurt by our unintended actions that we are sorry for the pain we caused.
All power to the people.