My instinct has always been to support free speech, I'm pretty good at avoiding what I don't agree with. I know for example hard porn is out there, I don't agree, I avoid it.
My gut though lately is saying the Daily Mail's coverage of Isis is over a line a civilised society should draw. I feel conflicted, but today's reporting of a murder really made me think. Obviously I can choose not to visit their site, but I do occasionally have a mindless habit of looking at lunch break at work, a bit like reading the old copies of chat....
My thoughts:
-They may as well be the PR department of Isis, they distribute their videos to a far wider audience and spread their message/ fear
-Feeding this coverage of videos (this is my main issue) surely feeds into the cycle of more and more videos with murders becoming more creative/ abhor ant to keep gaining that shock factor and raising their agenda/ profile. Is this not blood on their/ our hands too?
-human dignity, is it not lost to view videos/ still of fellow humans under torture?
-although I could simply avoid the Mail, I think there is no place for the level of shock coverage at all in our society. Yes people can seek it, but actively bringing it to the mainstream, people who simply read news on a popular site is wrong.
- Obviously I have not used any detail of images/ events beyond the fact they are filmed murders. If you haven't looked I really wouldn't, I'm quite robust but it upset me all day and I found my thoughts keep returning to what I saw. I'm sure someone will describe it in more detail than I have...so be aware of that reading replies I guess, it's not in my control (nor should it be...)
** Obviously also, yes I really have (finally) learnt my lesson on reading their site. It's a final straw, others may have made this choice ages ago...but as I said I'm normally one not to dwell on things like this and have some mindless habits like mums netting