Jeff Howard写道，2012年3月，自封为伊斯兰圣战战士的Mohammed Merah在自己的胸前绑上了一台相机，继而在法国杀死了七人。半岛电视台决定于不播出这段画面。
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在2012年3月11日到19日之间，一名自称为伊斯兰圣战战士的法国籍阿尔及利亚反对派分子Mohammed Merah在由他引起的一些列针对蒙塔班和图卢兹的法国军人以及犹太小学生的攻击中射杀了七人，另有五人受伤。3月22日，在长期对峙后，法国警方射杀了Merah。Merah宣称他在保护巴勒斯坦儿童，以及抗议法国参与了对穆斯林的战争。他是基地组织的一名专业特工，但目前还不清楚他是否和其他恐怖组织有正式联系。一个巴基斯坦的基地组织分会宣称是他们训练了Merah。
就在这次事件之后不久，阿拉伯半岛电视台就收到了由Merah拍摄的屠杀画面，他在枪击中将一台相机绑在了自己的胸前，记录下了这一刻。《古兰经》的诗篇和宗教音乐充斥在画面中。受害人家属要求半岛电视台不要播放这些画面，法国总统萨科齐也重申这一请求。他说：“我要求所有拥有这段视频并且有可能将其播出的媒体在任何条件下都不要这么做。这是出于对受害者的尊重，对共和国的尊重。”半岛电视台在援引自己的道德条文后，决定遵从这个请求——认为这则视频没有为该事件增加任何新信息——只是一些枪击声，尖叫，以及凶手和受害人的画面。半岛电视台的道德条款要求该组织必须“对我们的观众有合理的尊重，并且对于事件有正当的关注，以呈现出一个明朗、有事实根据的、正确的描绘。同时也要充分考量在犯罪、战争、迫害和灾难中那些受害者、受害者家属以及目击者的感情，以及对个人隐私和社会道德的影响。”
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To the author opinion, it is patently wrong to describe murder as “objectively offensive”. One need only look as far as the glorification of violence in nearly all commercial media to see this. It is not only depictions of it that are popular; real life footage is hungrily devoured by voyeuristic viewers as well. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsA9VtQ_uLg
The video has over 1,000,000 views, and an overwhelming “like” ratio. Why is it allowed? Is it because the victims are little white blobs? Is it because we cannot see their faces? They are the “bad guys” getting “what they deserve”?
This, to me, is far more disrespectful of identity and individualism than broadcasting murders. Picking and choosing which individual deserves respect undermines the entire argument to an extreme degree.
Perhaps the video related to the case study should not be aired on public television. Perhaps it should not be made available. But the reasoning behind this is inherently hypocritical, and disgusting at that.
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From my personal point of view, i think that the omision of the footage was a totally right decision.
First of all i am totally agree about citizens getting freedom of speech and the most accurate information possible about anything that is relevant to anybody. But on the other hand, i think that the murder has been cover very good, as all the details have been explain. Furthermore, the information about the arrest and death of the terrorist has been covered very accuretaly.
Why i am against the diffusion of the video? First of all, most of the victims are kids, by this i mean that they are underage, therefore under the responsability of the parents. And which mother/father wants to recreate and live again the death of their kid? I think that it is not necessary and image or sound in this case. With some written information is enough.
Secondly, i think that the video could be a source of “Inspiration” for other terrorist attacks, and therefore i think we don’t need to do more publicity about the terrorist attack. Because everybody knows that positive/negative publicity is the best way to get known and increase the followers.
Finally, i think that besides those ideas, in order to respect the victims, it should be somehting private, for respecting their privacy and honor.
In conclusion, it was an excellent idea to ban the video, and i don’t see that the political pressure was something negative, at this moment i think it was an act showing respect for the victims. Sometimes is better to avoid information, because it is not going to add more details, but just some macabracy.