Privacy Laws on Publication of Photos Needed

The news that a Syrian man beheaded his 15-month-old nephew in a Jeddah supermarket in March shocked many, but for some the tragic events were made worse when Saudi newspapers published gruesome photos of the decapitated boy.

For a group of Saudi bloggers, the publication of those pictures was beyond the pale; they initiated a letter-writing campaign to one of the papers that had published the photo. The young woman who started this campaign did not want her name published (her blog address is: http://entropymax.wordpress.com/). She said the complaints have gone unanswered.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “we have received neither reply nor acknowledgment that the letters have been received. A fellow blogger also sent the letter to a number of Saudi newspaper editors and columnists, but has not received responses either.”

Even though Saudi society is generally very photo shy and highly protective of its privacy, local newspapers regularly publish pictures of crime victims and perpetrators - sometimes without the usual identity-masking photo techniques, such as blurring faces. The rules appear to be at the discretion of individual editors; sometimes the identities are masked, sometimes they are not. Privacy advocates here are calling for a standard, much like the privacy laws that apply in other countries, especially pertaining to the pictures of minors.

Dr. Samir Arar, a psychologist at Jeddah’s family-counseling Maharat Center and a professor of psychology at King Abdulaziz University, said journalists have a purpose behind publishing such stories: to elicit strong reactions, which sell newspapers.

However, the problem, he said, is that newspapers can end up in the hands of “everyone, including children and people who can get emotionally affected easily.”

“These pictures contradict the basics that educators and parents want to instill in their children, such as a feeling of security,” he said. “He (any person who has access to newspapers) can initiate social behavior based on these pictures, which can lead to extreme behavior.”

The merit of publishing photos in newspapers, he added, should be weighed not for its appeal to voyeurism but rather whether the pictures add relevance to the news story.

Arar said he would like to see editors also consider the psychological effects these pictures have not only on the general audience but also on the people connected to the images.

In many countries it is illegal to publish photos of minors without the consent of their guardians (usually parents). A minor in most cases is defined as a person under the age of 18. General public photographs of groups of citizens in ordinary circumstances (such as outside public venues) are OK, but photographs that could violate privacy or be used for commercial purposes, without the written consent of the legal guardian, is strictly forbidden. Authorities generally do not disseminate photographs of minors involved as perpetrators or victims of crimes. Photographs of rape victims of any age are also prohibited unless the victims give permission, which is rare.

On the other hand it is legal to publish photos of adults (people over the age of 18) who have been arrested and charged with crimes. Newspapers in the United States often include not only photographs of suspected criminals, but also their home addresses. The situation gets ambiguous, however, when it comes to publishing war photos. In the US there is self-censorship with regards to dead US soldiers, but most papers feel free to publish child victims of suicide attacks, natural disasters or distant conflicts.

In the Kingdom, these rules are not clearly defined outside of what is described in Islamic law regarding privacy. Papers tend to defer to the side of caution - considering the high value placed in the country on reputation and privacy. But there are no specifically worded laws or media regulations outside of deference to Shariah standards and cultural values.

According to the Saudi printing and publication law: “Any publication that promotes or presents anything that is against the Shariah principles or that is against ethics and public morals or the general law is to be fined an amount that does not exceed (SR20,000) or (the person responsible) imprisoned for no more than six months or to receive the two punishments.”

Lawyer Ibrahim Al-Zamzami, who has a Ph.D in international law and litigates on libel cases in Saudi Arabia, says that among the important concepts in Islamic law is the concept “tash’Hir,” or “publicizing,” which is the Islamic version of privacy law: Making public information that families do not want made public.

Al-Zamzami is representing a case against a local newspaper for publishing a story about a child who was allegedly abused by his mother. The ex-husband’s family made the accusation. The newspaper published a story and photographs that were allegedly evidence of the abuse. Subsequent reports have cast doubt on whether the mother was in fact abusing her child, and Al-Zamzami says that in light of this the newspaper violated the privacy of the mother through tash’Hir.

But unlike privacy laws in other countries, like Europe or the United States, the truth is not always an unyielding defense against complaints. An action that is publicized may be a “tash’Hir” violation even if it is a truthful but harmful fact.

“The basic principle of Islam is to protect human beings’ physical and psychological state as well as their public image,” he said. “Anyone who would harm these rights has to be punished.”

In many cases “tash’Hir” complaints tend to come about only when a prominent figure or a Saudi with the will and the power to file charges does so. Newspapers often feel free to publish pictures any way they choose of average individuals, like the murdered ten-month-old Syrian child. Last year a Saudi newspaper published a photo of a Bangladeshi woman who had allegedly been gang-raped. The photograph was not altered to hide the woman’s identity and no suit was brought against the newspaper for a clear “tash’Hir” violation. (Arab News also published the photograph, but masked the woman’s identity. This did not prevent Bangladeshi officials from complaining about the picture, however.)

A regional editor of a widely read local newspaper, who did not want his name or the name of his employer published, said that his organization “doesn’t publish extremely harmful pictures.”

“I have stopped pictures of women victims and pictures of bodies in horrible conditions with their body cut into parts,” he said. However, according to him, publishing a picture of a child victim’s bleeding head is “OK” to support the story.

Othman Al-Sini, a former acting editor in chief of Al-Watan daily, stressed the need for code of ethics regarding publishing pictures. According to him these rules should be established by the media themselves rather than the ministry. Al-Sini, however, warned against establishing an absolutist view on these ethics.

“What was unacceptable (for Saudi newspapers to publish) a few years ago is now accepted and published,” he said.

For his part, he says Al-Watan is usually careful when it comes to gruesome pictures. “We have shaded some parts of the picture and we also wrote a warning on the front page,” he said, referring to a recent photograph depicting a dismembered corpse of a suspect terrorist following a suicide bombing. Publishing this picture was aimed at conveying a message regarding the danger of terrorism, he said.

A photograph that the paper published recently of patients at the Shihar Hospital for Psychological Illnesses in Taif led to a ministry-level investigation into the treatment of patients at this well-known mental hospital. The photograph depicted patients who had been stripped naked and hosed down as part of the typical bathing routine at the hospital.

According to him, publishing such a story along with a picture was not aimed at appealing to voyeurism but rather to get a reaction from authorities.

“The two question that should be asked before publishing these pictures are: What is the message and what is the effect we want to have on people? If the right answers to these questions are there, we will publish the photographs. Otherwise we put them aside.”

Lawyer Sayed Muhammad says this standard seems to be a reasonable way for newspaper editors to approach the issue. He echoes the standard by which many Western countries hold privacy violations: The truth is the best defense against those that complain that their privacy has been violated. “The victim has the right to file a complaint only under one condition, which is if the story and picture published were not true or accurate,” said Muhammad. “Otherwise the newspapers have the right to practice their role in publishing news with pictures.”

Muhammad said that for the most part it seemed that newspapers were careful to mask identities of people depicted in photographs, especially in crime reports. Newspapers that overstepped the limit might receive a warning from the Ministry of Information.

But, still, photographs do find their ways into the pages of newspapers that are crass violations of privacy, or distastefully appealing to base voyeurism.

By Fatima Sidiya

Popularity: 1% [?]