Tracey Jury







Privacy rights and the reporting of the 2011 earthquake

The global media coverage following the February 2011 earthquake in New Zealand showed many images of individual suffering. These images were then published repetitively on television stations, the internet and in newspapers, nationally and internationally, often without the knowledge or against the wishes of those who suffered. This paper will argue that, in the hurry to tell the story of unprecedented tragedy, private moments of individual distress, injury, suffering and grief were photographed and published on a scale and in a manner that were neither necessary nor appropriate.

Keywords: privacy, 2011 New Zealand earthquake, Kant, journalists' professional routines, commercialisation


References

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  3. Geonet (2011) Christchurch badly damaged by magnitude 6.3 earthquake. Available online at www.geonet.org.nz/feb-2011-christchurch-badly-damaged-by-magnitude-6.3-earthquake.html, accessed on 9 January 2012
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  13. Sontag, S. (2003) Regarding the pain of others, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Note on the contributor

Tracey Jury is a postgraduate student in Media and Communication at the University of Canterbury. She also works part-time for the social marketing agency, The Shannon Company. Contact: taj23@uclive.ac.nz