MEDIUM RARE 

It was headline stuff, video with story that was one in a million, those television images of the close-in, face-to-face assassination of a broadcaster inside his booth, in his home in Calamba, Misamis Occ. last Sunday, Nov. 5. Ironically, “live streaming” of his own death gave nationwide TV viewers a ringside view of the crime as it happened, where it happened, to Juan Jumalon.

A news director can only dream of such dramatic footage, so it was a scoop, except that it was not, because the live streaming meant the horrific killing was shared and multiplied on TV and other platforms and portals. Good video but unethical. An unwritten law restricts media, print and television, from depicting pain and suffering on a personal, intimate level. Such scenes, especially in close-up, are considered abhorrent, not to be published or broadcast for general readership/viewership. 

In addition, MTRCB advises “parental guidance” for viewers of TV news.

Jumalon the broadcaster was killed by someone who had no second thoughts about snatching the necklace from his fallen victim’s neck. There were, in effect, two crimes committed, murder and robbery. A third crime would have to be the one inflicted on the Jumalon family, that the victim’s face was shown in close-up as the bullets found their mark.

There have been other, less serious cases of infringement of privacy rights, such as televised images of “alleged prostitutes” hiding their faces with a towel or shawl after being rescued and while being paraded by policemen in front of photo journalists. Then, too, pictures of wounded victims of street violence who, alive and in pain, are shown lying prone on a cot or hospital bed as the cameras zoom in to show their dirty, naked toes. Toes!

The killing of the broadcaster aka DJ Johnny Walker was big news that became bigger, due in part to the dramatic footage. Without the “live streaming” that allowed the crime to be shown on millions of TV screens in one night, would it have provoked the same shock and anger from the public, foreign diplomats, and members of the Senate and House?

The answer, as my teacher would’ve put it, lies in another journalistic truth: No two stories are ever the same.