THE PRESS’S PROFESSIONAL SELECTION STATES: In December 2022, news published a Brennpunkt documentary about sex sales in massage parlours. news set up a hidden camera outside a number of salons, and showed pictures of both employees and customers. The editors also published photos from the Facebook profile of employees, where they posed with expensive bags and luxury goods. Complainant: Prostitutes’ Interest Organization in Norway (PION) filed the case on behalf of four women who work with Thai massage. PION stated that the women had been identified in the documentary, without there being any basis for this. The slander was not sufficient, and the women have been recognized according to complaints, which has been a great burden. A woman was also recognized when news used her voice from a telephone conversation, the complaint stated. news should not have used covert recording, and the editors should have been more careful with what are particularly vulnerable sources. Nor did news have the coverage to accuse the women of selling sex, and the editors could not know whether the depicted luxury goods are real, argued the complainants. According to complaints, the women have been contacted by news on “false premises”. The media: news believed the documentary shed light on a topic of significant public interest. news further pointed out that the documentary has already been processed by the Press’ Professional Committee (PFU). In light of PFU’s previous assessment, news admitted to having broken good press etiquette towards one of the women in PION’s complaint. This woman was filmed on her way into a salon, and news admitted that she was not sufficiently anonymised. As for the other three women, news stated that one of them was not in the documentary at all, and that the other two were only in still images. These two were sufficiently anonymised, argued news. news thought it had good documentation for the information in the documentary. PFU’s assessment: The Press’ Professional Committee has previously dealt with another complaint against the same publication. However, the women who have consented to PION’s complaint were not involved in this treatment, and thus have the right to appeal the publication. Acceptable with hidden camera PFU emphasizes that the media should only exceptionally use hidden 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 news’s use of methods has been a burden. It is intrusive and invasive to be secretly filmed over time. At the same time, the PFU states, as in the previous hearing, 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. The committee can see no basis for news operating on “false premises” in violation of VVP 3.3. However, the insufficiently anonymized PFU reacts to news’s offensive use of images, and how the editorial team has exposed women who are accused of working in the sex trade. When the media discuss such a stigmatizing and sensitive topic, and an industry with vulnerable and exposed people, particular caution is required. PFU sees that exposure of the name and facade of massage parlors leads to indirect identification and a potentially large burden. The documentary showed images of women where only their heads had been shaved. Body shape, gait, clothes and bags came out clearly, which can help to identify them. Here, PFU’s assessment is the same as in the previous treatment. As PFU sees it, the lack of anonymisation constituted an unnecessary burden. 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”. Criticized use of images PFU is also critical of how news used still images taken from the complainants’ Facebook pages. The images do not identify the women to a wider circle, but the committee points out that in this context it can be offensive to be exposed to a close circle as well. Based on what has been submitted in the PFU case, however, the committee has no basis for concluding that the fourth woman is in the documentary. PFU notes that there is a particularly skewed power relationship between the media house and the women whom the editors have met and filmed. news used the material from the intervening methods in a way that did not take into account how it affects a vulnerable party, and the PFU concludes that news has also breached VVP 4.1, about showing objectivity and consideration in content and presentation.news has breached good press etiquette on points 4.1 and 4.7 of the Be Careful poster. Oslo, 30 August 2023 Anne Weider Aasen, Tove Lie, Gunnar Kagge, Ellen Ophaug, Ingrid Rosendorf Joys, Melissa Jocelyn Lesamana, Øyvind Kvalnes
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news broke good press etiquette in massage parlor documentary – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
