Calapan Murder: Unnecessary Description

Screengrab from Manila Bulletin ePaper.

JEERS TO the Manila Bulletin for trivializing an act of violence by describing a murder victim as “pretty.”

By describing her as “pretty,” the report suggested that the victim’s physical attributes had something to do with the alleged crime. But no such connection was made in the text of both reports. The use of the word “pretty” was, therefore, unnecessary and tended to divert reader attention to the looks of the victim, a detail that may distract from the seriousness of the crime.

The Bulletin published the story “Pretty lady stabbed 21 times in Calapan” on Tuesday, August 9, and a follow-up report, “’Kagawad’ owns up to killing of pretty lady from Calapan- PNP,” on Wednesday, August 10. Both reports repeated the word “pretty” in the lead and even included a self-portrait of 29-year-old victim Queence delos Reyes, a resident of Barangay Calero in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro.

The August 10 report said Leo Macalalad, a barangay councilor San Vicente South in the same city, claimed when he was brought to the police for questioning that he was Delos Reyes’s boyfriend and confessed that he stabbed her “out of jealousy.” The police said that three more persons of interest were being investigated.

The Guidelines on the Coverage of Crimes Against Women and Minors, proposed during a 1993 CMFR seminar on the same topic, points out that “Reporters should not use words and phrases which tend to pass judgment on the victim and/or suspect.” Some examples of these words are “prostitute,” “pretty” and “sexy.”