Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I guess it was for the first time in the TV news history

In my Face book homepage the most discussed topic now is the story that Lider TV, one of the pro-government TV channels in Azerbaijan aired sex video of the director of a local pro-oppositional newspaper a few days ago.
In my previous blog I wrote about this video when it was shared on You Tube and Face book. After a few days the TV channel aired the video in the evening news program and the next daytime.
While engaging in oral sex, the Lider TV moderator said "we have to show this to the Western world, especially to France, so they know that their methods are very close to our opposition."

The moderator said that the video was distributed publicly by a rival opposition group. "This shows how 'united' our opposition is," the moderator added.

After studying two months media ethics, and coming so close to the values a journalist should meet, I was really upset, or even shocked by the behavior of Lider TV.
I can somehow understand Face book and YouTube that they can not control the video content immediately and allow this kind of materials to be shared though they can ban after you report about the violation. But for the professional media of course it is completely unacceptable to enter one’s private life so immorally.

How the manager could be so unethical, or how could the moderator be so cruel to cause harm to the people in the video?
Did they feel any voice inside themselves while doing that?
How can they justify violating personal privacy so cruelly to their kids, family members?
Did they think, or analyze any single minute before making the decision to air this piece or not?
Do they care of the audience which is about 95 percent Muslim people and quite conservative about talking of sexual life publicly, let alone watching it on TV news with family members in a prime time.
I still wonder of the answer for this questions. I wish I could get an answer for them one day.

1 comment:

Dr. Von said...

When you get answers to your questions, I too would like to know. It appears that Western media influences in terms of privacy may be affecting Azerbaijan.