Unethical Of French Magazine To Depict MH370 Tragedy In Distasteful Caricature

By Siti Radzeah Rahmat KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 (Bernama) -- The eldest child of vanished Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH370 chief steward Andrew Nari could hardly contain her grief over a distasteful caricature of the wrecked aircraft depicted in a French magazine. Maira Elizabeth, 18, who is pursuing a diploma in mass communication at SEGi College in Subang Jaya (in Malaysian state of Selangor) described the satirical magazine as "dim-witted and repellant" over its disgraceful display of the caricature. "This is unethical of the magazine and disgusting as it (caricature) humiliates everyone and everything. "I cannot believe that such a company or people (behind the magazine) still exist!" she fumed during an intervidew with Bernama recently. No stranger to international controversy, the magazine in its recent publication mocked the discovery of a flaperon which was found on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and confirmed by international experts to be a debris of MH370. The magazine has thus, drawn criticism and disgust from the public, especially relatives and friends of the 239 passengers and crew of MH370. The Boeing 777 aircraft went missing while enroute to Beijing, China on March 8 last year. Kelvin Shim, 39, the husband of MH370 stewardess, Tan Ser Kuin said he was browsing the internet for an update of the vanished aircraft when he chanced upon the the magazine's cartoon depicting the doomed aircraft. "Little did I realise that instead of finding more news on the debris, I stumbled on a picture, both cynical and obscene. "If their popularity and sales increase from this publication, it is because of people who enjoy this kind of humour. They probably don't understand how it feels when families go missing or are involved in a terrible tragedy, and no remains are found," he added. The father of two (nine-year-old son and a seven-year-old daughter) said he needed to be extra vigilant in monitoring his children's net surfing just in case they came across the caricature. Due to the wide coverage of the MH370 incident, Shim hoped people worldwide would be able to guide their minors on what being published by the satirical magazine, if they found it immoral. Malaysian Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM or MARA University of Technology) Mass Communication and Media Studies Faculty's Professor Dr Mokhtar Muhammad finds the magazine's mocking, nothing less than hypocrisy. "On the principle of the freedom of the press and freedom of expression, the magazine has no sense of humanity, and is not sensitive to the grief and sufferings over the MH370 incident. "If this tragedy happened to them, will they be doing the same mocking? It is easy to answer, definitely no," he said. For Norsham Firdaus, a UiTM lecturer in communication and sociology, the entire editorial team of the French magazine has no class, having placed its journalism profession in whatever form, to the lowest degree of intellectualism. -- BERNAMA