A Bolivian TV channel on Friday did a live broadcast of the final minutes of a coronavirus patient as doctors tried desperately to save him until he eventually died.
The channel said it decided to air the dying moments of the patient in a hospital in Santa Cruz in its No Lies programme to jolt authorities who had neglected the health services into action. But the TV channel’s action has sparked controversy.
READ ALSO: COVID-19: 7 million students risk dropping out of school – World Bank Report
The country’s ombudswoman Nadia Cruz accused the TV station of ‘sensationalism,’ noting that it “repeatedly and morbidly exhibited ‘images showing cardiopulmonary treatment being carried out on a person, which unfortunately ended in death.”
Others including journalists also criticised the TV station, saying the broadcast did not show respect for the family and the deceased. A journalist, Maria Trigo, from the newspaper El Deber de Santa Cruz, in a Twitter message, said, “We lost a lot of things with this virus, including empathy.”
READ ALSO: Nigerian universities accepting JAMB 160 cut-off mark
Another journalist, Fabiola Chambi, with the Cochabamba daily Los Tiempos said broadcasting the death showed “a lack of respect and humanity.”
Meanwhile, the government has yet to comment on the controversy.
-Advertisement-
We do everything possible to supply quality news and information to all our valuable readers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
-Advertisement-
-Want to get the news as it breaks?-
