مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Ethical Issues in the reporting of rape: “It is not enough 5 W and 1 H, conscience is also needed”

Abstract :

This article attempts to assess the ethical issues in the presentation of news of rape on the websites of Turkish newspapers. Accordingly, the subject of this study was a news item concerning 20-year-old Özgecan Aslan, who was murdered when she resisted rape in February 2015 inMersin, Turkey, and other rape news from the same period. The content analysis method was applied to 327 news items on the websites of Hürriyet, YeniŞafak and Cumhuriyet newspapers for the week from 13.02.2015, when the remains of the young woman were found. The ethical violations by the newspapers in the reporting of rape were grouped into nine categories. These were publication of the name/photograph/video of the victim/defendant, giving information about the relatives of the victim/defendant, giving details of the violence, giving the location and describing the process of rape, giving information about the school/workplace of the victim/defendant, using erotic language in the news item, legitimizing the rape,the lack of an expert opinion, and problems in the use of suspects’ statements. Consequently the findings indicate that the Turkish media present violence in a pornographic way when reporting rape, and Turkish newspapers need a more sensitive editorial policy on this issue.