Has Online Media Fulfilled Journalism Ethics for News Coverage of Revenge Porn Victims?
iSpeech.org
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In 2017, a girl as victim of revenge porn with the initials HA, became a trending topic on social media. Most online media made this case as their headline news, but they had not kept the secret of HA's identity. They actually exposed the identity of HA specifically, such as her full name, her social media, and the name of the university where HA was enrolled at. This phenomenon was continued until 2019, which the media often did not censor the identity of victims. Ironically, media rarely display the identities of the perpetrators of revenge porn. As a result, digital citizens tend to cyber-bullying to victims, and victims are usually making a decision to close their social media accounts, close themselves from social interactions in the real world, and experience deep depression. Supposedly, as victims of cyber-crime, the girls get identity protection and also their mental recovery. The phenomenon of news coverage of revenge porn victims in online media was examined using a policy study approach. The result shows that most of online media violated Article 9 of the Journalistic Code of Ethics in Indonesia which regulates that the media should maintain the privacy of victims. Online media makes the victim's identity as commodity to increase the amount of viewers who visit their website and media will get abundant gain. This shows that most online media are unfair to reporting about the case of revenge porn. The legal protection that protects victims of revenge porn also uncertain until now.
Gita Juniarti, Diponegoro University Semarang, Indonesia
source
Gloss