Unilateral disclosure threatens bereaved families with secondary harm
Two online media outlets created a stir Monday by publishing the names of 155 of the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush without the consent of their families. This was the first time that an almost complete list of the Itaewon disaster, which has claimed 158 lives as of Tuesday, has been disclosed.
The list was sent to the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ), a group of Catholic priests on the left, which held a memorial mass Monday for the victims. In the mass, Father Kim Young-shik read out the names of the victims one by one, potentially causing secondary harm to the bereaved families who are still in deep sorrow from the shock of losing their beloved sons and daughters.
It's not necessarily impossible to disclose the list. But the media outlets should have asked for the bereaved families' consent before the revelation. Condolences and remembrances are essential, but the bereaved families must be at the heart of them.
Given that the media outlets are left-leaning and close to the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), they cannot avoid the criticism of trying to use the tragedy in their political struggle against the right-leaning ruling side. The DPK is reacting cautiously after the list was disclosed, but it has a lot to answer for this unfortunate situation. In fact, Lee Jae-myung, the party's leader, claimed earlier this month that the list of victims should be opened to the public. Some even speculate that Lee made this claim to keep the public's attention on the Itaewon disaster instead of on the prosecution's intensifying investigation into several corruption scandals involving him. If that is the case, he should own up to trying to politicize the tragedy and apologize.
The unilateral disclosure ignores the will of the individual victims and their families and is likely in violation of the Personal Information Protection Act. Law enforcement ought to scrutinize where the list of victims came from and whether there was any wrongdoing in the process, and if there was, assign legal responsibility.
Two online media outlets created a stir Monday by publishing the names of 155 of the victims of the Itaewon crowd crush without the consent of their families. This was the first time that an almost complete list of the Itaewon disaster, which has claimed 158 lives as of Tuesday, has been disclosed.
The list was sent to the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice (CPAJ), a group of Catholic priests on the left, which held a memorial mass Monday for the victims. In the mass, Father Kim Young-shik read out the names of the victims one by one, potentially causing secondary harm to the bereaved families who are still in deep sorrow from the shock of losing their beloved sons and daughters.
It's not necessarily impossible to disclose the list. But the media outlets should have asked for the bereaved families' consent before the revelation. Condolences and remembrances are essential, but the bereaved families must be at the heart of them.
Given that the media outlets are left-leaning and close to the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), they cannot avoid the criticism of trying to use the tragedy in their political struggle against the right-leaning ruling side. The DPK is reacting cautiously after the list was disclosed, but it has a lot to answer for this unfortunate situation. In fact, Lee Jae-myung, the party's leader, claimed earlier this month that the list of victims should be opened to the public. Some even speculate that Lee made this claim to keep the public's attention on the Itaewon disaster instead of on the prosecution's intensifying investigation into several corruption scandals involving him. If that is the case, he should own up to trying to politicize the tragedy and apologize.
The unilateral disclosure ignores the will of the individual victims and their families and is likely in violation of the Personal Information Protection Act. Law enforcement ought to scrutinize where the list of victims came from and whether there was any wrongdoing in the process, and if there was, assign legal responsibility.
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