To be shocked at Sky News' coverage of the excavations in Praia Da Luiz?

[ziggiestardust]

I didn't see a lot of the initial coverage, as I was working abroad in 2007. But the Police are potentially excavating a little girl's body, regardless of the circumstances, and they've got live cameras at the scene, waiting. It's macabre, and it seems like regardless of the fact MM was a tiny little defenceless girl, she's fair game for the media.

I just think it's shitty. Do a quick piece on it, but is there any need for the close ups of the excavation site and a blow by blow account of what's happening?

Her poor family

For heavens sake. I am a journalist. This is a legitimate news story. I've covered a number of such sites. The police erect barriers, keep the press back and liaise with reporters in order to keep them informed.

Would you rather a situation where the police say: 'move along, there's nothing to see here?'

If you're a journalist, limitedperiod, did you see the Met's letter? I am one too and it convinced me.

that's not what's being said, limited.

there is a difference between reporting on developments and watching a hole being dug hoping to see a tiny skeleton. christ alive

I haven't longtalljosie. Would you mind linking and I'll read it and comment? Thanks, if you can.

I'm by no means an apologist for everyone in our trade, but I am weary of the lazy reactions of people who lap things up in order to condemn.

And I also take the points of the people who pointed out that the family of the hanged women might have wanted their pictures taken to prove that it happened.

What did Sky news do over the April Jones case? My dd upset about this at the moment due to something she saw on the news.

Please may they find a body .
I don't watch the news .
I just hope they find a body so the family know her suffering ended .
As for the bile related to the parents - it's been covered and we are all entitled to opinion , but perhaps you can filter your thoughts to others . Not everyone believes they are guilt free , but surely everyone believes they have paid for their acts ?

What would happen if they found a body? You wouldn't report it from the site, would you?

Of course I would. That was my job. I didn't make news happen. But it was my responsibility to report it. I took that responsibility very seriously when I was doing it and now I'm not, I still expect it of people do that job. In fact, I admire people who dug a lot deeper than I did.

I find it very frightening that people wouldn't do that for whatever reason - laziness or convenience. There's a debate to be had about news sense/values too, but the essentials remain: if something happens, you tell.

I forgot to add to laziness and convenience: a sense of decorum.

I honestly can't tell you which I despise most.

limited Journos are members of the public. They have no more right to get close up than I do. And how much right that is depends in this case on the law of Portugal.

If it was in England: yes I would rather those who did not need to be there were kept away.

So are SY now saying it was a panicked burglar rather than a pre planned abduction? As stated on crimewatch

What happened with April Jones? What did Kay Burley do??

I don't think they will find her though as a burglar wouldn't be able to carry a child out a window with a shovel and then bury on ground like that which requires excavation equipment in a town where within an hour it was swarming with police and media. More likely they are looking for evidence maybe?

I'd like to know about April Jones and Kay Burley too. What happened?

This is a thread about media coverage, not speculation re MM disappearance. please keep it to that.

If some of you wish to have yet another thread speculating upon the case itself, do start your own thread. so it can be deleted

Kay Burley and April Jones

Andrewofgg Yes we are are members of the public. Where did I not say that? At sites such as this it is the police's job to manage the situation. In Britain they can easily do it using public order laws that apply to everyone. In Portugal, which I believe used to be a dictatorship, that might be a bit easier. That includes news helicopters - it is only slightly more of an inconvenience for the police to get an injunction.

I don't expect you to love journalists, but would you really want to live in a world were everyone was kept away?

I reserve my biggest contempt for people who turn their faces away, not out of intimidation, but out of a misplaced feeling of decorum. 'Oh no, look away darling. That's just so, so tawdry.'

Madeleine deserves justice, as do her younger siblings whose lives will be blighted by this tragedy forever.

Thanks ohtherelief

Yes candy ditto her parents.

I'd be very interested in what you think you achieve, limited, with this sort of.coverage? Specifically, the live coverage of this excavation? Why could.it not be reported later? What do we as the public stand to.gain from witnessing this live?

Given the amount of suspicion/countersuspicion, accusation/counteraccusation, conspiracy theories and the like that have surrounded this case, I am surprised that people are not happy that there will be no doubt at all as to the outcome of this action, given that it is being scrutinised as it it happens.