A women's group has taken the local media to task for sensationalising reports of sexual and violent crimes over the last few weeks.

Naming two major English dailies for their 'sensationalist and insensitive' reports, the All Women's Action Society (Awam) said the media has 'no good reason' to satisfy the public's lust for gory or intimate details about sexual crime victims.

Awam president, Judith Loh, said that resorting to sensationalism in order to hike up sales was not an ethical or responsible practice.

"It is highly callous to the families and friends of those involved," she said in a statement.

Since the media wields a lot of influence over society's thoughts and sentiments, she said, it has a responsibility to help develop society for the better.

"Rather than use the tragedies of murder or rape victims to boost its sales, it should respect and protect the privacy of the victims' and their families and educate the public likewise," she added.

'No purpose'

Loh cited news reports published by the New Straits Times and The Star yesterday on the ongoing murder trials of victims Canny Ong and Noritta Samsudin.

The headlines for the NST and The Star reports read 'Noritta had sex with more than one man, court told' and 'Noritta sexually active, possibly kinky' respectively.

Loh said the NST saw fit to report in detail the condition of Noritta's genitalia at the time of her death on its front page while The Star , she added, fared no better with its headline.

"Such reports serve no purpose except to feed the public's thirst for lewd or gruesome details of violent and sexual crimes, or to suggest that the victim deserved what happened to her since she was a 'slut'."

She said such graphic reportage of sexual or violent crimes "... can't possibly be what our prime minister (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) sought to encourage when he called for the mass media to highlight sex crimes in society".