The Press’ Professional Committee (PFU) has dealt with the complaint and concluded that news has breached good press practice in points 4.1 and 4.7 of the Vær Varsom poster. THE PRESS’S PROFESSIONAL SELECTION STATES: The news Brennpunkt documentary was published in December 2022. news had set up a hidden camera outside a number of massage parlors, and showed images of both employees and customers. Complainant: The Church’s City Mission complained to the Press Professional Committee (PFU) with the consent of four of the women mentioned. Two of the women were filmed with a hidden camera outside the salon they run, and complainants believed they were not sufficiently anonymised. You can easily find the women’s names by looking up the massage parlors online, and they are easily recognizable on news’s photos through “body shape, gait, hair length, height, clothes and bags”, the complaints stated. The voice of three of the women can also be recognised, the Church’s City Mission said. The third woman was shown in two still images, and according to complaints, she can be recognized, among other things, by her body shape and tattoos. Complainants believed that news created the impression that the women are engaged in sex sales and possible pimping based on speculative information. The premises have also not been clear in the contact with the women, the complainant stated. The fourth woman stood up for an interview, but did not understand that it was a documentary about prostitution. The media: news thought it was justified to use a hidden camera. The documentary revealed a large scale of sex sales in massage parlours, and the editors could not have documented the same without the use of a hidden camera and microphone, news stated. According to news, none of the four women were identified. The complainants were slandered, and their voices distorted, the media house stated. It will be possible to look up the salons online, but news stated that there was a justified need for information to show the salons’ facades. news also stated that the women have posted pictures of themselves in online advertisements where their addresses were stated. The editors were in contact with the women several times before publication, and the premises have been clear, argued news. news denied that they had published speculative information. PFU’s assessment: The Press’ Professional Committee (PFU) emphasizes that the media should only exceptionally use covert recording as a method. It must be the “only possibility to uncover matters of significant social importance”, cf. Vær Varsom poster (VVP) 3.10. PFU understands that the complainants find news’s use of methods burdensome. It is intrusive and invasive to be secretly filmed over time. At the same time, PFU states that news’s documentary is of great public interest, and that the media house has uncovered conditions that would be difficult to document in other ways. The documentary has a broad source base, cf. VVP 3.2, on information control and breadth of sources. Not familiar with the media VVP 3.3 requires the media to clarify the premises in contact with sources. PFU notes that the complainants say they did not understand news’s journalists. The woman who stood up for an interview states that she did not understand what kind of documentary she was being interviewed for. The press must be extra clear to sources when something that will obviously be considered offensive is to be published, and the requirement is tightened if there are language and cultural differences and the sources are not familiar with the media. At the same time, PFU sees that news has been in contact with the complainants in several rounds, and that the editors tried to include the women in what they wanted to show in the documentary. The published interview was relevant to the case, and the PFU emphasizes that it is the media’s privilege to choose an angle. It is somewhat unclear to the PFU how the contact with the source took place, but after an overall assessment the committee concludes that news has not breached good press etiquette on VVP 3.3. Identifying use of images However, PFU reacts to news’s offensive use of images, and how the editorial team has exposed women who work in the sex trade, or are accused of doing so. When the media discuss such a stigmatizing and sensitive topic, and an industry with vulnerable and exposed people, particular caution is required. It is also suggested that two of the complainants may have facilitated the sale of sex by others through the salons they run, which may constitute punishable pimping. The PFU sees that the exposure of the name and facade of massage parlors constitutes an indirect identification and a potentially large burden for the two salon owners. The documentary showed images of the women where only their heads had been slashed. Body shape, gait, clothes and bags came out clearly, which can help to identify them. The committee notes that the women believe they can also be recognized by their voices in the published audio recordings. Field on two points As PFU sees it, the lack of anonymisation constituted an unnecessary burden on the complainants. The committee refers to VVP 4.7, which requires the media to be careful with “clear identification signs of persons who are mentioned in connection with reprehensible or criminal matters”. PFU notes that there is a skewed power relationship between the media house and the women. news used the material from the intervening methods in a way that did not take into account how it affects a vulnerable party, and PFU and concludes that news has also breached VVP 4.1, to show objectivity and consideration in content and presentation. news has breached good press practice in points 4.1 and 4.7 of the Vær Varsom poster. Oslo, 29 March 2023. Anne Weider Aasen, Gunnar Kagge, Ellen Ophaug, Nina Fjeldheim, Ingrid Rosendorf Joys, Tove Lie.
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