OTTAWA – A TV news report that contained images of a fatal motorcycle accident should have been preceded by a warning to viewers, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has determined.
The CBSC investigated a news report about a vehicle collision that aired on CHEK-DT (Victoria, BC) on September 11, 2017 during its 5:00 PM CHEK News broadcast. The station reported that police were investigating a fatal crash between a motorcycle and a truck, and then aired footage that had been captured by a nearby security camera, which showed the accident from a distance. While the footage was partially obscured by the security camera’s time code, it did show a motorcycle being struck by a truck and then toppling over. The footage was then zoomed in on and repeated in slow motion, and the report informed viewers that the motorcyclist had not survived, plus provided his sex, age and town of residence.
Two viewers complained that it was inappropriate to show footage of an accident in which a person died, especially without any prior warnings to viewers, and suggested that it also violated the driver’s privacy. The station responded that the footage was grainy and recorded from far away, though it did acknowledge that warnings would have been useful. It also noted that the broadcast had not identified the motorcycle driver by name.
The CBSC’s English-Language Panel examined the complaint under the News article of the CAB Violence Code which requires broadcasters to exercise discretion in reporting on violent incidents and to advise viewers in advance of showing extraordinary violence. The Panel concluded that CHEK was justified in showing the footage, but that it should have preceded the clip with a warning to viewers.
The Panel also found that CHEK did not violate the privacy article of the Radio Television Digital News Association’s Code of Journalistic Ethics because the report would not have allowed viewers to identify the motorcycle driver.
