MK Shai Hermesh (Kadima) submitted Wednesday a law that would forbid mass media to publish pictures of grieving relatives of soldiers who were killed in the first 48 hours after they were notified of the tragedy, without the consent of the relative. The law would apply to relatives of the first and second degree.
The law would forbid the media from making contact with the relatives, and from being in their proximity, until 30 minutes after the relatives had been informed of the loss.
The law has been informally dubbed “the Rona Ramon law” because it comes on the heels of severe criticism of Israeli reporters' behavior Sunday when the death of Lt. Asaf Ramon became known to them. Reporters sped to the home of his mother Rona before the IDF's representatives had gotten there, and as a result, she learned of her son's death through the media presence outside her home. In addition, media showed pictures of Mrs. Ramon, widow of fallen astronaut Ilan Ramon, weeping as she received the tragic news.
Violators of the law could be sentenced to one month's jail time or a fine of NIS 300,000. The bill, which was submitted to the Knesset Secretariat, would apply in cases in which a person was killed in the line of duty in the IDF, in a national disaster or in a terror attack.
'Crude Voyeurism'
“The solidarity and the public interest in the fate of victims of national disasters, of soldiers who are hurt and of civilians who suffer terror attacks, has brought with it a harsh side effect, in the form of a scramble by the media to publish the names and pictures of the victims' relatives at the very moment that they receive the news that their relative was murdered,” Hermesh said.
"The publication of photographs of the relatives of the murder victims as they receive the terrible news is crude voyeurism and not necessarily worthy journalism,” he explained. “There is a limit to the cruelty [that can be carried out] in the name of freedom of the press. There are cases – and this is one of them – in which the partial restriction of freedom of expression is reasonable, worthy and moral.”
Hermesh voiced optimism that the law would receive support from MKs from all over the political spectrum and that the law will be passed speedily.
In contrast to the media, which was relentless in the publication of video and photos from the crash site and from the Ramon home, a group of yeshiva students who took the first pictures of the crash scene turned down offers of money in return for the photos, once they realized that a tragedy had occurred.