Bereavement due to traumatic death
Media involvement
Often the media take an interest in what has happened; local papers often cover road mayhem, while murders, and especially terrorist attacks, are likely to attract national interest. People we talked to had had varying experiences with different sections of the media and offered advice about how to cope with media interest in the days and months after the death.
A paper may want to send a photographer to the funeral. Families may not want press photographers there but one family was pleased to be sent copies of the funeral photos taken by a journalist. Attitudes to press coverage may differ within the family. Some family members may be disappointed if the press does not mention their bereavement. One woman was surprised that her children cut out every article and put them in a scrap book. Differing opinions in the family about press involvement can cause tensions.
The media can be important in the investigation, for example in appealing for witnesses. Some people bereaved by a traumatic death want to campaign to bring attention to the cause of the death and know that the media can help them. Godfrey wanted to publicise safety issues on railway platforms.
After Mark died in a workplace incident Dorothy found a few journalists who helped publicise her campaign to change the law to make directors accountable when people are killed at work.
After Mark died in a workplace incident Dorothy found a few journalists who helped publicise her campaign to change the law to make directors accountable when people are killed at work.
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What’s your experience of the press been like, the media?
We’ve actually been, well again the media not really, on the whole the media are not interested in deaths at work. It’s if you, we have actually tried to get publicity for workers memorial day, and deaths at work and how it’s happening every day and they’re not, we have been told a few times that it doesn’t sell papers, but having said that we actually have, I have some contacts who have actually been very good, some journalists who do feel quite strongly about it who have actually printed some articles, not so much the detail obviously of how Mark died etc, more you know into the campaign, you know our campaign to try and get the law changed so that directors are held accountable when people are killed at work, you know, in order to try and stop it, so that they’re, you know, I’ve had a few articles printed like that.
But, we haven’t had any, I mean perfectly honest you know, we’ve probably had less publicity than we would have wanted because you know the more publicity there is, we feel that it brings it to public attention. I think, I think the press is more interested in, I don’t know sleazy murder cases and things like that, you know that might titillate readers rather than the actual issues you know.
Martin was vaguely aware of a flurry of press interest in his wife’s death but it hardly affected him – he was too busy trying to cope and support his children.
Some people were advised to prepare a statement for the media to discourage them from becoming intrusive. If they did not give the media a quote the reporters would ask neighbours or colleagues to comment, risking inaccuracies. Adam’s father read a statement to the press after the court case, relieving the rest of the family from the need to answer questions. Adam thought that the press were generally OK after the case.
The police family liaison officers can help and advise families on how to deal with the media and when appropriate may introduce people to the police Press Officer, who can advise people before they speak to the media. A police Press Officer or senior Investigating Officer could read a statement on someone’s behalf.
A policeman advised Sarah to prepare a statement. One of her sons gave it to journalists when they arrived on the doorstep. The press then left the family alone until after the inquest.
A policeman advised Sarah to prepare a statement. One of her sons gave it to journalists when they arrived on the doorstep. The press then left the family alone until after the inquest.
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And finally, you haven’t said anything about the press. Did they get involved?
Yes. On the very first day on the night at the hospital I actually said to the policeman who was there, “Can you keep this out of the papers?”, because at the time I thought, at the time I was thinking this dreadful thing had happened, I don’t want my children opening a newspaper and reading about it. And he said, “That’s not possible you will find that there’ll be reporters on your door wanting to know about it”, and he actually advised us, he said, “The thing to do is to prepare a statement, if you don’t want to be part of all of this, and you don’t want the press.” And so what we did was, that very first morning when we woke up the next morning, we actually wrote a thing that said something like, something very simple about, you know this has happened and the family want to be left alone to deal with it. And so when the press did turn up on the doorstep one of the sons just went and handed out this piece of paper that just said, “He was a quiet and gentle man, we want to, we’ll miss him and we want to be able to be left alone”, and to be fair, that actually was fine.
But what we didn’t, I didn’t realise when I spoke to the policeman, because I was there on my own at the hospital, that time when the other children hadn’t arrived, was that actually they were practically obsessed by looking at what the papers said, and they cut out and kept every article, every photograph, there was a lot of stuff in the commercial, in the specialist press as well, which they’ve collected and kept, so there is a file there, but I think that was the first sign of what developed into this obsessive need to know absolutely everything about what had happened in the accident.
So did the press bother you again after that?
After, no after that, nobody else came near us.
Not individually.
Not individually, the only other time was after the inquest, there was a reporter at the inquest.
After a disaster such as the Bali bombing, bereaved relatives may also appoint a spokesperson on their behalf.
Jocelyn chaired the UK Bali Bombing Victims Group. The group had a media spokesman, but Jocelyn also tried to give the press a balanced view.
Jocelyn chaired the UK Bali Bombing Victims Group. The group had a media spokesman, but Jocelyn also tried to give the press a balanced view.
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Well obviously when I was the Chairman of the UK Bali Bombing Victims group I had quite a lot to do with the media, although we had a particular media spokesman. I was interviewed quite, I was interviewed on a number of occasions for television and for radio, gave interviews to people, and I generally I found the media interest very, very proper actually. And I was always tried to give a sort of balanced, you know balanced verdict on whatever the particular issue was at the time, sort of appropriate to, because they weren’t, we had in the group, you know, extremities of views. I mean there were views that said, you know, “The government is totally at fault,” you know, “The Foreign Office should be dumped into the sea,” and “This is appalling,” I mean we, and, and, and I perhaps you know, temperamentally I think that was not correct, it was much more to be more engaged, so we had a very good press spokesman, and I, I gave that person back up and from time to time I was asked to give opinions as the chairman of the group, which I did, and hopefully you know properly and appropriately.
In some circumstances, such as when there are police investigations, the police may ask people not to speak directly to the media and to leave all media involvement to them. This happened after Karen’s mother died in a fire (see Karen’s account in ‘The Police Liaison Officer’s role). In such cases it is important for family members to understand this.
Susanna found much variation in the behaviour of journalists: many were extraordinarily supportive and understanding after her brother died in the Bali bombing but some asked bizarre and insensitive questions. William commented on patchy relations with the local press – some were very good, others intrusive. Carole described the press as behaving like ‘vultures’; journalists had written sensationalised accounts of her son’s murder.
Recently bereaved people can be very upset by misleading press reports – especially if articles imply that the deceased was to some extent responsible for the death. Ian was upset that the newspaper misspelt his brother’s name.
The press have helped Peter's drink-driving campaign. Inaccuracies in a report of the fatal crash, e.g. her son's age and who was driving the car, enraged Peter's wife.
The press have helped Peter's drink-driving campaign. Inaccuracies in a report of the fatal crash, e.g. her son's age and who was driving the car, enraged Peter's wife.
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I saw your newspaper cuttings, did the press bother you, how did you get involved with the press and how much were they too much sometimes?
Well, I was able to cope with them because we get them turn up for various times with regard to drink driving episodes.
At the time, at the time?
At the time I was able to cope, yes. We had three papers, there was a problem with them yes, my wife was very cross about just one or two words they got wrong with regard to what one of them suggested that Tim was older than he was and that he was driving, you know, and she was furious about it. In the whole scheme of things, it was a typing error and no harm was meant but, I think it’s very important not to take too much notice of what the papers say, but you can’t help it, you interrogate every word they write and you judge one column against another, you know, and, because it’s your, it was my boy they were writing about, you know, and everybody was reading it. And we had one or two people say, “I didn’t think Tim was driving” and we’d say “Well, he wasn’t” and so that was awkward but I will say that the people [journalists] were, well two of them were very young and inexperienced but quite pleasant and one of the chaps had been around the circuit quite a few times so he knew how to handle things, but you’ve got to handle these people, you know, it’s in your control to handle what you’re doing and you just have to take charge of things, I think, you know, and only do what you’re able to do.
Ian was upset that journalists spelt Dorrie's name wrong, but he understood that a change of name might have hindered finding his killers. He had no other problems with the media.
Ian was upset that journalists spelt Dorrie's name wrong, but he understood that a change of name might have hindered finding his killers. He had no other problems with the media.
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There was one thing that was very, very difficult for me personally, My brother’s name was Dorrie, and when the media announced his death they referred to him as Donny, and that had to continue even though we highlighted this, “Look his name’s not Donny, it’s Dorrie.” We gave them the spelling and everything, but the police had unfortunately said, “We’re going to have to continue running it as Donny for now because once a mistake’s already made, to change it means that people are going to think it’s somebody else”, so they have to continue until the period of time, so we had to go through this whole two weeks of referring to him, having referred to him in the media as Donny, and you know people are constantly coming and saying, you know, and I’m coming back to work and people are calling him Donny at work, I said, “His name’s not Donny, it’s Dorrie.” I mean it’s all, and the other thing is that my brother was so proud of his name, he so loved calling himself Dorrie, that that added to that you know, sorry, that just really was an awful you know.
It really was an awful experience, to have to see it in the media as Donny and then have people referring to him as Donny when he was, you know, how proud he was of his very, very unusual name which was Dorrie.
Apart from the incident with the name, that was the only thing I think was difficult. I think we were very, I think we were very, very fortunate really because I, because I’ve worked supporting families. I know the experiences, some awful experiences that people go through with the media, and even with the police, but I’ve got to say that my experience of the media and the police were very, very good on the whole, the only thing that was very difficult to accept was the name, the printing his name wrong at the beginning, and then the need to continue to print, but I understood why they needed to do it, because I could, I could understand that the change of name would have actually hindered finding his killers and you know because, a change of name would sometimes confuse people and therefore people wouldn’t come forward so it was important to continue printing the same name for that period of time. So apart from that, there was no other problem with the media. I think most of the stories that went into the papers we had already been briefed by the police before they went in, so we knew they were going to be there, the pictures they used of him were pictures that we sort of like sanctioned and we never saw a picture in the paper that wasn’t one that we thought was appropriate. They used the same picture, which was a picture that we had, not quite pleased with but, so yes, the media and the police on the whole were very good. You know we had a very good experience.
Some people were cynical about the tendency of newspapers to illustrate articles with photos of pretty young women. Rosemary felt it intrusive of reporters to photograph her grieving niece.
Matthew criticised the biased approach of the media. He found that journalists only wanted to write about grieving relatives who wanted revenge on the terrorists. Relatives who believed that executing the terrorists could compound the problem by making them martyrs were not often written about.
Occasionally there are more objections to press behaviour. It may be possible to persuade a newspaper editor to withdraw a comment or to print an apology. Elizabeth complained when a paper printed a picture of a pretty girl sending a text message next to an article about her daughter Marni’s accident. To Elizabeth this suggested that Marni was responsible for her accident and complained. A very small apology was printed deep inside the paper.
Journalists were intrusive and kept phoning the house. Terri's brother emailed the local paper to complain. The paper wrote a lovely tribute to Ben but revealed their home address.
Journalists were intrusive and kept phoning the house. Terri's brother emailed the local paper to complain. The paper wrote a lovely tribute to Ben but revealed their home address.
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What about the press? How’s that been?
At the time I couldn’t stand it because they were ringing up and wanting to speak to people and my brother works for Yorkshire Television and he’s quite high up there and he was very annoyed at some of the coverage that, not the coverage, the intrusion of people who kept phoning the house. And so he emailed a very, very abrupt email from work to the local paper. And, and I think he must have put some, whether it be legislation or not to, to be intrusive and as from that moment they backed off. They rang up my liaison officer to say, ask if they could take pictures of the funeral and I said no.
I didn’t want all that. I don’t like all that intrusiveness. I’ve never had my picture in the paper or anything, I didn’t want it.
You know, because I think I’ve got two children here that need protecting and I didn’t want everything to be hyped up. So I, I said no to that. And I said no to anybody coming to the house and speaking to me. Yes.
You said there was a lot in the papers…
Yes.
Was it accurate?
Yes it was. It was all accurate. And it was very nicely written. The local journalist is a lady and she wrote some lovely, lovely tributes to Ben and everything was 100%. Yes. I did give them some pictures. They asked for some photographs. Not of me or my children, of Ben.
And things like that. Because they even put the, they even put your house, the front, your front door in with the number on. So everybody knew where we, what, what, what number we lived at because of, it’s just little things like that. And we had people calling round, I’d never met before in my life, and knocking on my door. It’s really difficult.
But, they were only doing it out of goodwill.
Complaints can be made to the Press Complaints Commission.
Last reviewed October 2015.
Last updated October 2011.
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