The last week, some of the stories in the newspapers here in Thailand have been really saddening. Deaths of young children in motorbike crashes and rapes involving children.
Two really sad stories involved a 2 year old boy and a 9 year old girl, who were killed in accidents involving motorbikes.
The two year old was riding pillion passenger with a relative or family friend who looks after him as the parents are working. She was returning home with the boy when the accident happened.
The lady riding the motorbike clipped a tractor reversing onto a road that had an attachment on the back of it. This caused her to crash and the boy being only two year old was thrown and he received fatal head injuries, including a supposed broken neck.
The nine year old was on a motorbike with her grandmother on the way to school. They were hit by a pick-up truck and again she was killed instantly with fatal head injuries. The grandmother was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
In both accidents these were young children travelling in unsafe ways, with no helmets. It is Thai law that motorbikes only carry two people, it is the law that both have to wear helmets. Sadly this is ignored by so many.
Even if the two children had been wearing helmets maybe they wouldn’t have survived, but maybe they would have as well. Studies show how fragile a human skull is and delicate our brain is. The smallest of knocks to a person’s head can mean brain damage or loss of life.
What disgust me in all of this is the pictures the Thai newspapers carry. The two year old boy was front page, his body laying face down with blood that seeped from his head trauma. Thankfully this was blurred but you could still make everything out easily.
The nine year old was saddening. Her picture was not blurred. She was laying face down with her school bag beside her. He face was turned toward the cameraman and there was a large pool of blood surrounding her head.
I cannot understand how the government allows such pictures to continually grace the front pages of newspapers. I am not against the reporting of the deaths. I would hope that this might make just one Thai person to change the way they transport their children.
I am against the use of such graphic images; they could use pictures of the motorbike, car involved in the accident. I am going to start a data base of all these pictures of death from the Thai papers, I am going to try and find out the media laws pertaining to the use of such pictures in the media. I want to know what is legal and what isn’t legal.
I will then approach the relevant authorities and see if the laws are being broken, or try and start a change. No person should ever see some of the pictures that are printed in Thai media. This is a pipe dream of course and I am sure my one tiny voice will hardly make a ripple but I am going to try.
I am going to start a webpage shaming the papers and their pictures and hopefully with time this will eventually have enough followers to present a petition of change is need be. We will just see what happens.
What I don’t like is how these papers are displayed; children of all ages can see the death and destruction left across the country. The victims or murders, even rape victims have their pictures splashed across the front pages in death. It is just so wrong.
There has to be civil liberties for victims. What about the families’ of victims having to see these pictures splashed across newspapers and also TV.
The stupid part about censorship in Thailand is on Thai TV, they blur out nudity, alcohol, smoking, drug usage, guns (weapons) only when they are pointed at another person.
In the 1997 constitution, freedom of speech was guaranteed in articles 39, 40 and 41. Censorship can be imposed for, national security, maintain public order, preserve the rights of others, protect public morals, and prevent criticism of the royal family and insults to the national religion being Buddhism.
Surely some of these are broken when printing pictures of victims at the worst time of their life. Wouldn’t these pictures break, preserving the rights of others and protecting public morals?
The newspaper that is notorious for pictures of death and carry front page picture, sometimes 3 or 4 is a paper called the Thai Rath. This newspaper apparently sacks editors if they fail to run a certain number of death pictures. And sadly it is Thailand’s biggest selling newspaper and the oldest.
Another sickening paper is the Daily News. It is a glossy paper and carries plenty of horrible pictures. This is the paper where I saw the picture of the 9 year old girl. I will link to a picture from the paper, it isn’t graphic as in blood and gore but in humiliation for a victim. She was 21 years old and was choked to death by her 31 year old boyfriend. She is being removed from her room by rescue services.
Am I just being oversensitive, do I need to desensitize? I just know that I don’t want kids seeing these images, growing up thinking this is the norm.
What do you think? Should pictures of this nature be allowed to be printed and also shown on TV?
Brunty
6 comments:
I think we often analyse these situations based on our sense of morality as it's been developed in the West. Western media have many limitations as to what they can show or not show, not least due to the rights of the parties injured and any ongoing investigations.
I don't think these same rights and obligations exist in Thailand (if they do they're not observed). The only purpose of the media is to sell as many papers as possible or to obtain the highest number of viewers.
This is why I find the moralising that took place on children's day (as well as the ongoing and expensive MOSO campaigns) rather patronising when it's clear that the best interests of children are not considered in Thai society; consider child prostitution, trafficking, street beggars, facial disfigurement, paying for a basic education, a parental fascination with cross-dressing at an early age, no legal obligation for fathers to take financial responsibility for their children following a divorce, etc
I think from a purely legal point of view: the articles in question allow the state to impose censorship for pretty much anything politician's feel like. However since censorship was not imposed the papers should currently be fully in the clear. The exceptions on free speech only allow for censorship, they don't mandate it, and they don't mandate self-censorship if the state does not set rules.
Whether the pictures should be allowed is another matter: yes I think they should - free speech is too important to restrict. Once the government is allowed to establish censorship, it will always be abused - it's just too easy to do and to difficult to even find out about it.
Some people do honestly feel that showing pictures like these will get people to change their behaviour (e.g. get them to buy helmets for their kids). I believe they are wrong, but I think they must be allowed to pursue their point. Others (most likely the case for the newspapers in question) will just shows these pictures to get readers - either aware that showing them will be useless or not caring whether it's useless or not. However since it's not possible to prove intent, there is no practical approach to treat the cases differently. Even if it were possible - the danger is too great that this would be extended to a general censorship regime.
Do you know that your posts are being hijacked and stuck on:
http://thailand.sompost.com/
He is nicking all my stuff too!
Spike
Pattaya Days
I see images like this all the time in Taiwan and I've never been able to get used to it. I can't imagine how devastating it must be for families and friends to view loved ones this way. It's horrible.
I myself don't need to see photos of dead people on the newspaper's front page everyday, though it seems the Thais aren't all that sensitive to it.
I remember nearly losing my lunch once while visiting there in '96... Was having a delicious khao mun gai at this little hole-in-the-wall shop that wrapped their to go orders in wax paper and a newspaper sheet... and I was half way through the meal when I noticed what was on the newspaper sheet (that happened only once, though. Maybe the merchant wasn't paying attention that time). Uggghhhh. :oP
I don't know enough to really judge it. Their priority list looks different than a Westerner's, I think. They get easily offended on issues that we think trivial and vice versa. It does seem to me that Thai folks seem to be more aware of their mortality than we do, though (even the young ones). Maybe getting to see those photos everyday contributes to that?
Hope your computer is behaving well, Brunty!
Smorg :o)
Leosia I hope that my sense based on morality is what most people think.
The limitations set on western media is to protect people mostly, some of the limitations are over the top.
There is no way that any civilised country should allow pictures to grace the front page of their papers showing death by murder, accident or suicide.
I agree with you about the way Thailand do thing such as Children's Day and banning cigarettes being displayed and so forth but papers can carry the most gruesume of pictures.
Thailand turns a blind eye to many of the things happening under their noses and they know about them as well. The prostitution, sweat shops, gangs forcing kids to beg and so forth.
Hi Stefan, politicians are a joke in Thailand, even back in Australia many are seen like this. Thai politicians are mostly concerned about making money and screwing over the people they are meant to represent.
There sjhould be media laws, there has to be laws governing the media and I want to find out what they are.
The pictures showing people who are deceased to me isn't needed. It won't make a person put a helmet on because the front page carried a picture of a guy with half his head missing.
They need to send repeat offenders to hospitals or places where people are suffering from brain injuries and make them do a months community service to make them realise the dangers of not wearing helmets.
A picture of the smashed car or motorbike is enough for me, and then they can write about the fatalities.
Hi Spike, yes, I knew and I like you have a name and number and I have also reported the site to Google and Yahoo and also written to the webhost. I would like to meet the guy though.
Hi Carrie, I too cannot get used to it. I am not weak stomached and these sights do not make me sick. I am purely agaisnt the rights of people being abused in life or death.
It is so demeaning to have a picture of a girl dead on a bed for all to see who had been strangled and raped.
The poor family, isn't it enough to just have lost a loved one, and not share a picture of this person with a million readers on paper and who knows how many on the internet.
Smord, Thais aren't sensitive and at times I think many are just downright stupid.
I was at a terrible accident a few years back after it had just happened. I was trying to help one girl who was seriously hurt, two of her friends were deceased. I was so busy assessing the situation and having people do things I hadn't really noticed the crowd that had gathered.
This crowd had parents with tiny kids maybe 4,5 or 6 years old standing and looking at the carnage.
I can tell you I said some of the worse words I knew in Thai and was furious at these people and the shock on the faces of the people and some of the comments made me want to beat some sense into the mothers and fathers standing there.
Smorg the papers are displayed for all to see, in places where little kids can look at these horrible pictures.
I like you cannot understand why the trivial things (to me) upset them but things they should be angered or disgusted at just gets the Mai Pen Rai attitude.
TIT
Thanks for all dropping by.
Brunty
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