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Bioethics in media publications and a right for privacy of the sufferers

The correlation between bioethics and journalism is frequently manifested through examples of media treatment of the disregard of ethical principles of medical staff or of the morally and ethically dubious medical research. When E. Haavi Morreimi said: “As a branch of science, bioethics emerged from scandals which follow medical research”, it was as if he had directed towards the existence of two opposed “camps”, one of which is liable to err (medical) and the latter – of the media – is infallible. In consequence of this, media can be understood as the “consciousness of mankind” which is meant to monitor ethnicity of behaviour of the “opposed camps”. The paper aims at presenting how certain oversights may occur to the other side – the one of media. At one time Baudelair was shocked by newspaper articles bringing him bad news. Very likely, he could not have even imagined how today man not even gets upset one bit by some most explicit records of a tragedy or misdeed. Releasing the pictures of war disasters may reinforce motivation of a national being as well as help foster organized defence ; the photos of the ill, starved and disabled may provoke pity for the troubles and for the people in need ; such pictures can even stimulate humanitarian activities. It’s most probable that such or similar feelings are caused by visuals of car accident afflictions (by arising awareness of being cautious in traffic), then by job accidents (through animating those in charge to assure higher standards of employees), or by consequences of terrorist attacks(/via resistance against terrorist groups and their methods). However, from the point of view of aesthetics, ethics, law, humanities etc. it is justifiable to ask oneself what drives journalists and media houses to offer to the public e. g. most explicit accounts of slaughtered human bodies scattered all around or even burnt and carbonized bodies of those sufferers in the fire. The Croatian public was exposed to all of that after the tragedy of Croatian firemen on the island Kornat on the 30th August 2007. Explicit pictures of calamity were exploited in all forms of media reports about the event, right after its start, even in the moments of extreme family members suspense. Is there a law proclaimed framework which can protect the sufferers and their privacy or is all left to decisions of media houses, grounded on no principles whatsoever? Journalism, liberal orientations are limited by their own business codes of ethics, by rules and regulations of their own professions which highlights in particular the principle of “respecting of the dignity of other people” In this case “respect” is missing. The pictures of the sufferers were thus used in all media reports whilst human intimacy and privacy in the moments of the affliction, fight for life, throughout the course of medical treatments etc. were of secondary interest. Is it all an example of unguarded ness: a desire for a more complete documentation of an event or did media in this case capitulate in front of the “demands of the market” targeting at a larger edition before which journalists’ standards, journalism ethics and journalism professionalism simply collapsed? Answers to all the above questions should be provided by bioethical journalism of the 21st century.

Bioethical journalism, ethics, media, a right for privacy

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