The online media organisation Behindwoods announced on Thursday, September 21, that they will “no longer cover the homes or funeral ceremonies or the families of public personalities who have passed away”. In a statement, Behindwoods said that the organisation would cover the deaths of public personalities only if a public grievance ceremony is arranged by the deceased’s family.
While stating that the decision has come from the realisation that the family and well-wishers of the deceased need privacy, Behindwoods apologised for “anything done by our team members in the past has caused inconvenience or sorrow”. The statement added, “We will focus on honouring the lives of those we have lost while strictly maintaining the dignity and privacy of their families.”
The statement came just days after the death by suicide of music composer and actor Vijay Antony’s daughter. The funeral had been widely covered by Tamil TV channels and online media. Most of the coverage was not only invasive and insensitive but also ignored any and all guidelines in reporting deaths by suicide. Media persons interviewed the deceased child’s schoolmates, and even released voice recordings from the funeral ceremony that was closed to the media. Some cameras were trained on the bereaved parents while others followed the ambulance that took the child's mortal remains for post-mortem.
The insensitivity of the coverage was called out by many.
Meanwhile, despite their apology and promise to refrain from such reporting in the future, Behindwoods has not taken down the 8-hour-long live video coverage of Vijay Antony’s daughter’s death.
Read: Vijay Antony’s daughter’s suicide: The cameras need compassion