As a daily routine my brother was going through the newspaper and analyzing it. In between he made a call to the representative of a news agency which releases the news for all the newspaper of my city. It was about a news in which a student has tried to commit suicide and the agency has included his true detailed identity.
The conversation which later turned into an argument was about the repercussion of that news. The big question was how sensitive a media person should be while using the identity of the person and what can be its repel effect ?
My brother was supporting the view that a media person should avoid using the identity of the person in such cases. He supported it by different examples like how victimized the person would feel, about his family etc. But the person on the other side was unwilling to understand all this and was supporting the view that we should mention the identity.
After a long discussion my brother asked him tell me if it was someone from your family or me, then what would you have done. The person on other side replied I would have avoided using the identity. He explained him because he is from your family or I am close to you and you don't want to spread something bad about us. And then he asked a very emotional and strong question.
What should be our circle of affection : limited to our family, our friend, our street, our area, our city, our state, our country or the whole world. Because at the end of the day it is a human being who is facing the harsh side effects of journalism.
