What moral universe are you from? Everyday tragedies and the ethics of press intrusion into grief

Abstract

Nowhere is the conflict between the professional values of journalists and the values of ordinary people more apparent in the UK than in press coverage of families grieving for victims of accidents or crimes. Attempts from the beginning of the 1990s to forbid press intrusion into grief or shock have been steadily resisted by the British Press Complaints Commission, whose voluntary Code of Conduct requires journalists to make inquiries and publish material with “sympathy and discretion”. Editors argue that such inquiries are in the interests of accuracy and may be welcomed by relatives but the voluntary code fails to address the problems posed by sensational journalism and its lack of compassion and empathy for grieving families