A recent story in Sweden of a man groping young girls (aged between 15-22) on buses raised the issue of press ethics. The police released images of said man to the newspapers in a bid to help identify him/track him down and the papers decided to run the story but blur his face in the images. A Danish newspaper has since reached out to the newspapers to ask why they blurred the images to which one newspaper (Aftonbladet) editor replied
"The Swedish press operates under a self-regulating ethical system. The rules are there to protect and set limits on what is reasonable and appropriate to disclose - and what's not."
"The police often have information, photos and video with the suspects, but they have not yet been arrested or convicted. We seldom publish such material. Police investigations are a police matter and not for the press. Our job is to keep an eye on how the police work. Not to cooperate with them."
What do you think? I can understand not publishing images or names of people who have perhaps been arrested on suspicion of a crime and are yet to be convicted, but when the police are actively seeking help and trying to find someone surely there has to be some form of cooperation between the police and the media?
Links to the original story (in Swedish)
http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/kr...h-unga-kvinnor
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/brot...nor-pa-bussen/
Link to the Danish story with the response (in Danish)
http://ekstrabladet.dk/112/derfor-sl...aenker/6589615