Kosmo!’s offence
THE media are at it again. Sensationalising the news, reporting inaccurately and unfairly, and worst of all, having no regard for the personal damage a report may have on a party.
The latest of irresponsible and unethical reporting was in Kosmo!'s 27 July 2009 edition that front-paged celebrated filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad who passed away from a stroke the day before. The story in itself had a journalistic logic to it. It was for a section called Di Sebalik Berita. It interviewed people who knew Yasmin previously, in another life. It described who she was before she became an acclaimed, award-winning film maker.
Mind you, the Kosmo! reporting was even more rigorous than what entertainment magazine Mangga Online attempted to do to disclose the same information they had about Yasmin. So, what was the problem with the Kosmo! report?
The problem wasn't the lack of journalistic rigour or even shortage of empathy involved, as one protest letter against the Kosmo! report pointed out. The problem was the lack of journalistic ethics involved in both the Kosmo! and the Mangga Online reports.
