In your editorial ("Voyeurs," #90) you strongly criticised Nepal Television and its viewers for converting the insurgency conflict as a "spectator sport" and not respecting the dignity of the dead. This was reinforced by CK Lal in ("Amusing ourselves to death," #91). That is why I am baffled by the fact that you published right alongside a gruesome photograph of dead corpses in a trench. There are either conflicting interests or lack of clarity on how to present news or move the public in the present situation.

It is very painful for me to see Nepal following the steps of Colombia (my country) at a vertiginous speed. I can see our same errors repeated again and again by politicians, insurgents, media and civil society. Presenting news in a sensationalistic and aggressive way, only generates either more violence or complete insensitivity in the long run. The little voyeur we all have inside (not only Nepalis) can turn very soon to be a monster or be completely indifferent and it is mainly from the media that he gets his nourishment. It moves me more (and I believe others as well) to see a picture of the persons involved in a tragedy, when they lived a happier situation, because there I can realise and feel the magnitude of the loss. The image of the tragedy itself normally repels us, even more so if it is a gruesome event. That is, if we haven't got insensitised by watching too many of them.

Those of us involved in media (or in our own voyeurism) have only to think for one moment about how we would feel if the body in the news is our mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son, or friend to understand the pain, grief and anger such exhibition would cause us.

Karin Eichelkraut,
Patan