Wednesday 18 November 2009

Sunday World apologises over suicide pic

The Northern Ireland edition of the Sunday World has apologised for printing a photograph of a man hanging from a bridge after he had taken his own life.
It has also offered £100,000 of free advertising to suicide prevention groups.
The paper was heavily criticised for using the photo in its November 1 edition. More than 50 complaints were received by the Press Complaints Commission.
Sunday World northern editor Jim McDowell at first justified using the picture as being in the public interest, but in a special editorial on 8 November, said that his apology was "unequivocal and unreserved, to anyone to whom we caused hurt or distress, and to anyone to whom we may have caused offence by publishing the picture."
He said the offer of free advertising was a genuine attempt to provide redress for the error.
"This is not a sop. It is not a stunt. Just like our apology, it is a genuine attempt to help," he said.
"In that regard, we hope to be sitting down with representatives of the Samaritans, Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide (PIPS), Forum for Action on Suicide Awareness (FASA), and any similar organisations who wish to talk to us and avail of the opportunity to promote their message or publish their help-line contact details."
Source: BBC Northern Ireland

1 comment:

levitra cialis said...

what a wonderful new! I mean the most of the information means in this world want to sell the mayor part of the new, and somtimes they don't consider the feelings of the people affected for this situation.