CJA WARNING: PUBLISHING A MURDER VIDEO IS A GROSS VIOLATION OF THE CODE OF ETHICS OF CROATIAN JOURNALISTS
Following yesterday’s publication of an explicit murder video in the Ritz club in Zagreb, the Croatian Journalists’ Association calls on the editorial board of Jutarnji List to promptly and without delay remove the mentioned content from its pages and apologize to the Croatian public for its publication.
The publication of such content is not journalism, it serves no public interest, and it represents a lack of morality and respect for the victim and their family.
The Code of Ethics of Croatian Journalists prescribes that journalists should protect a person’s privacy from sensationalist and any other unjustified exposure to the public. We are convinced that the moment of death falls into the sphere of a person’s privacy that journalists should protect from sensationalist and any other exposure to the public. We believe that a person should have the right not to be exploited by the media at the moment of death in such an extremely sensationalist manner aimed at attracting an audience, clicks, and subscribers. The Code of Ethics of Croatian Journalists also stipulates that special attention, care, and responsibility are required when reporting on “suicides, accidents, personal tragedies, illnesses, deaths, and violent acts.”
Journalists should avoid depicting individuals directly or indirectly affected by these events unless there is an exceptional public interest. In this case, the CJA simply does not see such exceptional public interest.
The video that reached the wider public through Jutarnji List should have been exclusively for the police to establish all the facts of the event, rather than being served to the public. We find the publication of such deeply disturbing content, devoid of any hint of public interest, and labeled as “exclusive” content, incomprehensible and incompatible with journalistic ethics and the profession as a whole.
For the Executive Board of the Croatian Journalists’ Association,
Hrvoje Zovko, President of CJA
Chiara Bilić, Vice President of CJA
Drago Hedl, Vice President of CJA