The massacre at a nursery in a northeastern province last Thursday is among the worst acts of violence in Thai history, and it has along the way revealed how some media need to be more conscious in their coverage of such tragic events to avoid causing further trauma.
There have been many such examples following the awful events of last week, with some members of the press being criticised for insensitive news reporting and breaching media ethics.
The most reported was the case of two CNN reporters having their travel visas revoked after they -- along with Thai reporters from other local media stations -- entered the off-limits childcare centre where the killings took place and used images of empty rooms with traces of blood as shots in their news clip.
Their coverage and intrusion drew ire from both the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) and the Thai Journalists Association (TJA).
Angry local critics even asked the Thai authorities to treat them as persona non grata.
CNN International subsequently explained its actions and removed the relevant content from its website, while local media TV 3 publicly apologised for creating a graphic animation that imitated the crime.
While people may have different opinions on how the media should be held accountable for insensitive news reports, what is worrying is that there are a lot of problems with media reports covering violence.
Only a day after the massacre, a man armed with a gun was arrested in Nakhon Si Thammarat after he allegedly went into a school to snatch his child while under the influence of drugs.
Psychologists have since warned that media reports might lead to copycats, while also adding further trauma to affected communities and families of victims.
Under media ethical standards, the media should not run images or graphic details of crime scenes.
Faces and identities of affected people should not be revealed, so as not to add further trauma to those already affected by such acts.
Unwise words that media can use to portray perpetrators can also lead to more hatred and funnel more collective anger, trauma and judgement.
Yesterday, Dr Amporn Benjaponpitak, director-general of the Department of Mental Health (DMH), asked the media to use the term "violence" instead of "shooting spree".
Dr Amporn also called on the media to avoid repeating the names of places to reduce long-term stigma in this community.
She warned that 7,000 villagers in the community are affected by various levels of post-traumatic stress with 10 of them seriously affected.
All sections of society -- media, government, experts and news consumers -- must work together to create guidelines on what should be reported and what should be avoided.
Experts in the media or in mental health should use this tragedy to educate the media on how to report with prudence and compassion while informing the public on being aware of the media they consume.
The tragedy last week was driven by a dark force. We need to make sure we don't fuel it.
