The way gory images of the dead are displayed by the media constitutes nothing short of sacrilege. The New Indian Express, in an editorial titled 'Framing The Tsunami' (December 31, 2k4), laments the double standards of the western media in covering 9/11 and the tsunami disasters. "The respect for the dead and for the survivors' grief that was so amply displayed in the first instance is gone disgracefully missing from coverage of the second," the editorial points out. But that is only one side of the story. The Indian media has been equally guilty of stark disrespect to the victims of the tsunami tragedy.
In fact, every tragic event has been a media opportunity. The media, which glorified forest brigand Veerappan, sporting the handlebar mush, as a Robin Hood figure in the days when he was alive, had no qualms in framing his body with a bullet hole in the head. And how do we account for the telecast of the charred body of former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao? An Indo-Asian News Service report, reproduced in The Hoot, quotes columnist Saeed Naqvi: "Showing Rao's charred body was simply bad taste. It was uncultured. To think of it makes one's stomach turn. It was a sacrilege."
This is not to say that the dead have no place in the media. They may be shown, but in a dignified state. Perhaps like the queen of carnatic music M.S. Subbulakshmi, lying in state with the peace that passeth understanding. But it should rather be a rule of thumb that gory images can never recreate moments of supreme grief. The Pakistan Government understood this and hence did not release to the media the Daniel Pearl videotape in 2k2. Had the videotape fallen in media's hands, the effect would have been negatively Shakespearian -- Macduff appearing on stage with the severed head of Macbeth.
Shakespeare, in this case, should not be the touchstone. The media should look upon the Greek dramatist Sophocles for guidance. In his tragedy 'Antigone', the eponymous heroine defies King Creon's edict on pain of death to accord due honour to the body of her brother. The dead must be honoured is the theme of this play and must be the ethical code for all media.