Press ethics.

[Gully Man]

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

[Seditian]

It's to prevent witch hunting. Which in most cases result in people hunting the wrong person(s). Same thing here in The Netherlands when it comes to cameras as far as I know, they're pretty low quality so you don't have full-HD footage of every single person walking around on the street.

[zenkai]

It's to prevent witch hunting. Which in most cases result in people hunting the wrong person(s). Same thing here in The Netherlands when it comes to cameras as far as I know, they're pretty low quality so you don't have full-HD footage of every single person walking around on the street.

^-- This

There was a guy locally that was accused of trying to rape 2 girls, and this hero 13-year-old boy saved the day. The man got death threats, and it ended up being a total bullshit story the kid made up. The mother even half heartedly apologized saying "Well the guy is weird anyway". In these types of stories the party is guilty until proven innocent.

[Gully Man]

It's to prevent witch hunting. Which in most cases result in people hunting the wrong person(s). Same thing here in The Netherlands when it comes to cameras as far as I know, they're pretty low quality so you don't have full-HD footage of every single person walking around on the street.

I get the vigilante argument but at what point do we put that to one side? Does it depend on the severity of the crime?

^-- This

There was a guy locally that was accused of trying to rape 2 girls, and this hero 13-year-old boy saved the day. The man got death threats, and it ended up being a total bullshit story the kid made up. The mother even half heartedly apologized saying "Well the guy is weird anyway". In these types of stories the party is guilty until proven innocent.

This guy has been caught on camera doing it so it's not made up.

[Alvito]

A great example of why you don't post pictures on a whim is the Boston marathon bombing. The news outlets were so desperate to have anything to post they were reporting rumors and as a result a lot of innocent people got hurts in the hunt for the bombers. The same started to happen in Dallas after the shooting of police this past summer. Luckily the nonsense was quickly filtered out.

[Serpha]

How is the public supposed to help catch the perp if they can't see his face?

[LongTimeCreeper]

So there is a video showing a man sexually assaulting a minor and the police need help identifying him so that he can be arrested. The newspaper refuses to show his likeness because he has not been arrested. What the fuck is wrong with people?

[Dezerte]

https://polisen.se/Kontakta-oss/Tips...llt-ofredande/

Aftonbladet and Expressen aren't exactly known for their press ethics, they're tabloid papers that seems to care more about sensationalism. But I totally do understand the position, if there is a witch-hunt and an innocent is crucified it's going to be bad for the news paper that purported it.

[JohnBrown1917]

How is the public supposed to help catch the perp if they can't see his face?

Let the police handle it, or the police give out the information.
Not the media.

[Allybeboba]

How is the public supposed to help catch the perp if they can't see his face?

What if an innocent person that looked similar to him got caught by a mob with torches and pitchforks? Let the professionals handle it.

[Serpha]

Let the police handle it, or the police give out the information.
Not the media.

Usually it's the police giving the press pictures and description asking for help, why is the press not showing it?

[Gadion]

Warning: This man is dangerous! (blurred face)

[Tyrianth]

Usually it's the police giving the press pictures and description asking for help, why is the press not showing it?

Because it's not the medias job. Innocent until proven guilty, getting your name plastered in the media for a crime you're innocent of is more than enough to ruins a person life.

[Serpha]

There's a lot of what ifs in this thread. No one is telling anyone to go vigilante, in UK they usually say something neutral like "police wants to speak to this man..." They don't need to specify why he is wanted. As for people going berserk, there was some cases like that and they got punished.

[Gully Man]

There's a lot of what ifs in this thread. No one is telling anyone to go vigilante, in UK they usually say something neutral like "police wants to speak to this man..." They don't need to specify why he is wanted. As for people going berserk, there was some cases like that and they got punished.

In this case the guy is caught red handed on cctv on more than one occasion. There is no grey area here. It's a person who has on multiple occasions been caught groping girls between the legs. I get the vigilante argument, but in my opinion it's in the public interest to make as many people aware as possible, making it easier for the police to find him and arrest him. That's the reason why they go to the media in the first place.

[Stacyrect]

The modern day press is little more then state run propaganda. They blur out the face because he likely resembles a person of middle eastern descent. In Sweden, it's more important to not appear racist or confirm their citizens fears, then to try and apprehend a person raping it's citizenry.

In Sweden, instead of enforcing their laws. They just got rid of them. So now incest is legal in Sweden. It's perfectly ok to be an adult and impregnate a minor who is also your relative.

Sweden ethics are only as strong as the sick and twisted progressive ideology that it follows.


[Infracted]

[Tyrianth]

In this case the guy is caught red handed on cctv on more than one occasion. There is no grey area here. It's a person who has on multiple occasions been caught groping girls between the legs. I get the vigilante argument, but in my opinion it's in the public interest to make as many people aware as possible, making it easier for the police to find him and arrest him. That's the reason why they go to the media in the first place.

If the police wants to get the assistance of the public then they should use the tools that they have to communicate with the public. Facebook and Twitter can be powerful tools if used properly.

Innocent until proven guilty isn't something you pick and choose who you apply it to.

[Trollhammer]

Well at least they didn't try to make him look white before posting like CNN do.

[Forogil]

Let the police handle it, or the police give out the information.
Not the media.

But in this case it seems the police is handing out the information to everyone, including the media.

The media is handing out blurred images - instead of showing the actual image the police officially gave them or just providing a clearly visible link to the police-information.

I can understand if the media is afraid to show the images themselves, but what is the problem with a link to the police?