'TN cop bleeds to death, even as ministers look on in complete apathy’ screamed TV headlines this week and sanctimoniously lamented the abysmal depths to which politicians have sunk.
And what did the channels have to support the story? A video footage, shot in an unhurried manner, of the cop begging for help and then collapsing.
The footage was provided by a freelance photographer, but had one of the NDTV cameraman been around he would have shot the same film too without any compunction.
Did the channels ask what the cameraman- one of their own tribe- was doing? Why couldn’t he have extended some help to the cop, instead of getting the photographic scoop?
Journalists and photographers have their own code of ethics. They are expected to be true to their profession- that is to report events and stories as truthfully as possible. They are not supposed to interfere – for good or for worse- when the events actually unfold. War photographers, who are constantly in battle zones, often see their countrymen getting injured but are expected to restrain their urge to reach out or help. Their job is to capture the piece of action on a film, not to save lives.
Wildlife photographers are expected to maintain strict neutrality and not influence or disturb the ‘ecological’ system in any manner. If a lion is chasing down a deer, their sympathy may be with the deer, but Nature is supposed to decide the outcome. The photographer should remain a mere spectator.
A detached outlook in the context of war or amidst wildlife may be understandable – even desirable- but not in circumstances that the freelance photographer found himself in, when the cop was dying. I would hold him as guilty of apathy and devoid of decency as the politicians. I wonder why the media has not introspected on this aspect at all.
5 comments:
Can't agree with you more...it is apalling to have shot the clip and to have sold it to all the channels...
-rajit
Yes, they are all hypocrites. Do you remember the incident of college girls getting burnt up inside a bus in TN after Jayalalitha was arrested? Sun TV promptly had full video footage of the girls getting roasted to death inside the bus. But of course, they could not interfere..
Anon,can you imagine the cold-bloodedness and inhumanity of this photographer, casually filming the whole thing and zooming in on the dying man. Either he should have tried to save him or, at the least, spare him the indignity of being filmed as he was screaming for help.
Raj - Till I saw the clipping in TV, I used to laugh at all those Tamizh movies, where the hero / villian beat the daylights out of cops.. honest or otherwise. None of the Tamizh movies, as I recall had scenes showing 2 ministers standing next to a dying cop. With incidents such as this one, as well as Hon. Shri ND Tiwari's audacious stunts at 85...I think Tamizh / Andhra movie makers will raise their level of imagination to beat the real stuff happening these days !..Balaji...
Balaji, to repeat my point, why are you singling out the ministers again? What about that damn photographer who was filming the dying cop so that he could cash in later?
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