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Media organizations express concern over the publication of violent videos

2024-08-27 16:44:49Aktualitet SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Media organizations express concern over the publication of violent videos
The case of Fatjon Goxhara

One of the most populated neighborhoods of Tirana was shaken on August 19 after a Border Police officer (Fatjon Goxhara) shot and wounded another citizen in the middle of the street at noon.

The event was widely covered by the media for the causes that led to this crime, but what shocked the public more was the publication of a video with sensitive content that the perpetrator of the crime had made of the victim after shooting him.

This video was distributed in the media and published in many online portals, but also by televisions in news editions, after the author surrendered to the police a few days after the event.

This was not an isolated case, since on Monday another video where two girls are seen raping another girl in a restaurant in Tirana was also published in the media, while the event that happened a few weeks ago is under investigation and the perpetrators of the crime have not yet been caught by the police.

The State Police did not respond to a request by BIRN whether measures have been taken to find out if the videos were leaked by the police during the investigation of the cases.

Meanwhile, their publication has re-raised the concern of media organizations for violation of journalistic ethics and violation of human dignity.

In a public statement, the Institute of Online and Social Media (IMOS Albania) expresses concern and says that their publication is not in the service of the public interest.

"This organization calls on journalists, editors, editors-in-chief and managers of popular online portals and sites, including television websites, to respect ethics and remove posts about the video of the LK citizen being shot by a police officer and of the KP citizen by two other citizens", it is written in the reaction.

Even other media activists call the publication of these images inappropriate and ask their colleagues to be guided by public interest and not by clicks.

Journalist Isa Myzyraj from the "Association of Journalists of Albania" told BIRN that "in all cases journalists and the media must respect human life and dignity".

"It is not in the public interest to broadcast these materials that are apparently to absorb clicks, while the person who distributed them first, who is necessarily a state official, should be held responsible for violating a number of laws," he added.

Even Blerjana Bino, from the "Safe Journalists Network", asks the media to prioritize the protection of people's privacy and dignity and to report in an ethical and professional manner.

"When the identities of the victims are exposed or when they appear in situations that violate their dignity, the media is not reporting an event, but is creating the possibility for these individuals to become double victims," ​​she told BIRN, adding that in these cases, victims "are exposed to public judgment, stigmatization and shaming".

According to her, this type of "public trial" is unacceptable and unfair, facing serious consequences for the mental and emotional health of the victims or family members.

Bino suggests that media outlets review their working practices and ensure that such publications are handled with particular care, respecting the principles of ethics and human rights.

The videos are also available on the online platforms of important national media such as Top Channel and Tv Klan.

Robert Rakipllari, chief news editor at TCH, told BIRN that the decision to publish was guided by professional reasons of transparency on the event and that the video was edited to protect the victim's identity.

"Censoring such an important dynamic of the event, which also speaks of the motives of the crime, at the moment when we have it as information, would have been unprofessional," Rakipllari said.

"All the more when we are dealing with an event that involves a police officer and about which there may be attempts to cover up or divert information, we are even more careful to cover all the dynamics", he reasoned. Rakipllari.

According to him, the television has taken care that the editing of the video sheds light on audio elements that provided information about the motive of the crime.

"The judgment on this case was fundamentally professional and the ethical preoccupation is constant in our work, not only in relation to this event", he concluded.

But Fatos Hakorja, editor-in-chief of Tv Klan, thinks quite differently, who told BIRN that he had decided not to allow the publication of videos during the news edition.

"I decided not to publish them because they are of zero interest to the public, they allow denigration of the victim, in addition to the fact that they contain sensitive images", he said.

But Hakorja did not give a reason why these images were meanwhile published on the online platform of this television.

"The online platform is separate from television and each editorial director makes his own decision whether to allow publication or not in such cases," he concluded./BIRN


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