Friday, June 25, 2004
Just something that I really wanna share this article published on TODAY (Thursday, 24 June 2004). Not in anyway trying to promote the paper on a personal note just because I'm working there =P Do take some time to read it....it'll leave an impact in you. This one's written by my Associate Editor. With this, I hereby announce that my site will not be a site that'll become a tool of the terrorists. Gruesome images/footages on the killings are banned on this site!
Enough is Enough
The images have been chilling, horrifying. We have viewed them in print, on the Internet, on television screens, with rising repugnance. We do not want these terrible things to happen, but they are happening, and they are making the headlines because they are so terrible.
They are taking place precisely because their perpetrators know that their acts will, almost as soon as they are committed, be the top item on news broadcasts and on the front pages of newspapers the world over.
We are talking about the recent murders by Islamic extremists in Iraq and Saudi Arabia of three civilian hostages. Three innocent, frightened men who were paraded in front of cameras by their captors as they issued ultimatums to governments; three innocent men who were, a day or two later, brutally killed in front of the cameras when these demands were not met.
Every time the media prints or transmits images of these terrible acts, we are playing right into the hands of the terrorists.
We are giving them the very platform they seek for their fanatical views and extreme methods.
These extremists know the power of modern communication technology and they know how to get the world to pay attention — threaten and then carry out barbaric, medieval acts that will very quickly be seen, in one way or another, in homes and offices everywhere.
We, as a newspaper, and you, as an individual, can do little to end the terrible violence and the cruel, cold-blooded taking of innocent lives in the name of a cause. But we can stop being part of the chain of mass communication that the extremists are so cynically manipulating.
We hope there will be no more hostage taking, no more deadly demands, no more on-camera murders of civilians by masked men. Men who profess to be fighting for a just cause but who are too cowardly to show their faces.
But if there are, TODAY will not publish the pictures released by these terrorists.
We will report the news because you, our readers, need to know what is happening. We do not, however, need to print the gruesome details of acts that are carried out in a way calculated to spread maximum horror and terror. We can, and will, say "enough is enough".
You, as an individual, can also say "no more" to the abuse by these terrorists of modern mass communication channels. Video clips and pictures of the murders are available on the Internet. If you receive email with these grisly images or with links to sites that carry the clips and pictures, delete the messages without opening or viewing them.
Better still, reply to the people who send you such email and ask them to stop the trail of transmission that only helps to serve the aims of the extremists.
As journalists, we have each day to decide what is the most compelling package of news, views and illustrations for publication the next day. We hope you agree with our decision to say no to the horrifying images issued by the extremists. We welcome your comments on this matter. Email them to news@newstoday.com.sg.
~Extracted from TODAYonline
// she's beautifully chaotic at 11:51 AM >> 