by RITA HADDAD
I would like to start off by saying that I am not a journalist. However, I do know that there are some common practices in journalism involving privacy. Some investigative journalists use hidden camera footage to raise awareness of issues of vital public interest when there is no other means of obtaining information about them. The faces of individuals shown in such footage are usually blurred. The reason for this is simple: the individuals do not know they are being filmed and thus have no way of giving their permission to have their faces broadcasted (unless asked after the fact).
This is a common practice in Lebanon, too. Murr TV (MTV), a Lebanese television station, aired a show on prostitution in Lebanon on the program Tahkik (Investigation) in 2010. Some individuals (a woman working at a “massage” parlor, prostitutes and pimps at a nightclub, etc.) had their faces blurred since they were not aware of being filmed.
Why is it that the same practice is not being followed by another show on the SAME station? It seems that Joe Maalouf and his staff on the MTV Lebanon show Enta Horr (“You Are Free”) are either unaware of or are purposely ignoring journalistic standards about privacy.
Joe Maalouf, on May 8th and June 26th, filmed episodes of Enta Horr at cinemas which screen pornography and are known to be frequented by gay men.
No one seemed to think it necessary to protect the identities of the men who were unaware of being filmed. Though the faces of the men in the June 26th episode were not as clearly visible as those in the May 8th episode, it was obvious that not a single face was blurred. It does not matter if the men were casually discussing politics or engaging in sexual acts. They are human beings and deserved to be treated as such. Showing those men’s faces on Lebanese national television not only exposes them to all of Lebanon, but also to the world as these shows are uploaded online.
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