Irish paper criticised for graphic Berkeley front page

Lifestyle

Jun 17, 2015

The tragic death of six young Irish adults in Berkeley, California yesterday is on the front page of almost every Irish paper this morning, but one publication in particular has come under fire for what is being called "insensitive" reporting of the incident.

The six students, five of whom grew up in Ireland, were killed following the collapse of an apartment balcony during a 21st birthday party in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Another seven students were injured, with two of them currently in a critical condition.

While most Irish publications have printed images of the students themselves, the collapsed balcony and the police at the accident scene, the Irish Daily Star ran this morning with a front-page image of four body bags along with the headline "Our hearts are broken."

A number of people – many of them involved in the media industry themselves – have criticised the paper for going overboard and using an image that is too graphic and sensitive for a front page, especially so soon after such a large-scale tragedy. Another publication, the Irish Examiner, also published an image of body bags, though it was a far more zoomed out shot of the same image.

Controversy first began when the Irish Daily Star tweeted an image of its front page via Twitter last night, around the same time that Vincent Browne began a nightly round-up of the next day's papers.

The Irish Daily Star should be ashamed of that #Berkeley front page. No need at all for such insensitivity. #vinb

— Donal O'Keeffe (@Donal_OKeeffe) June 16, 2015

.@paul_cawley @IsFearrAnStar Utterly horrendous photos. Please people, don't buy Irish Daily Star; imagine if it were your child. #Berkeley

— Sandra Maguire (@SandraMaguire) June 16, 2015

Serious lack of respect from The Daily Star with tomorrow's front page image. #Berkeley

— Darren Regan (@DarrenReganDJ) June 16, 2015

Please do not buy today's Irish Daily Star!! Front page is seriously insensitive #Berkeley @IsFearrAnStar

— Dee Cribbin (@deecribbin) June 17, 2015

This is not the first time that the Irish Daily Star has come under fire for use of controversial images.

Back in 2012, the paper became the subject of an international scandal after re-running pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing while topless. The images were first published in the French magazine Closer, and the Irish Daily Star was the only Irish or UK paper who re-ran them.