Media swarming of Calif. home of shooters recalls B.C. incident
VANCOUVER — A chaotic scene unfolded when a landlord pried open the door of the California townhouse where San Bernardino mass shooters Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik lived.
Dozens of journalists pushed through and broadcast live from inside the cramped home, rifling through the deceased suspects’ books, passports, shredded documents and photo albums.
But don’t chalk the incident up to brash American journalism — a similar incident happened in Canada, too.
Days after John Nuttall and Amanda Korody planted what they thought were bombs at the B.C. legislature in Victoria in July 2013, reporters combed their dishevelled home in Surrey looking for clues into their lives.
“It’s fundamentally problematic,” said Josh Paterson of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
“However sure the media or the public may be that someone has done something, there’s nothing that says that media can just go through their houses.”
Paterson said while he can’t speak to U.S. law, the media tours of the B.C. suspects’ home violated tenancy and privacy laws. Their landlords didn’t have the authority to allow a stream of journalists inside the two-bedroom basement suite, he said.
“Unless these reporters were plumbers to fix a flood in the apartment, a landlord has no right to admit them.”
Images of posters and books featuring Arabic writing, and prescription methadone bottles belonging to Korody were broadcast around the country.
A Canadian Press reporter went inside and saw another journalist rifling through a box of photos and a camera operator arranging pictures before filming them. The landlord said at the time that police told her there was no problem with letting the reporters in.
Nuttall and Korody were found guilty of terror charges this year, but lawyers are now arguing the police, who had made sure the devices the couple planted were harmless, manipu- lated the pair into committing the crime.
Chris Waddell, an associate professor at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication, said the B.C. and California cases are somewhat different because the San Bernardino suspects are dead and not facing trial.
But in both situations, the media is constructing a narrative about the suspects based on their apparent lifestyle, he said.
“Putting all this information out there of someone who’s been charged with something can certainly frame the public’s perception of whether this person is guilty or not,” Waddell said.
“The media shouldn’t be doing that and our system shouldn’t be convicting people on the basis of their character. They’re convicted of offences on the basis of what they actually did, not of who they are.”
Malik and Farook died in a fierce gunbattle with authorities hours after their assault on a gathering of Farook’s colleagues from San Bernardino County’s health department. The FBI said it is investigating the mass shooting, which left 14 dead, as an act of terrorism.
U.S. President Barack Obama plans to deliver a prime-time address tonight on the attack.
Several major U.S. outlets broadcast from inside the suspects’ home on Friday, showing prayer beads, books and children’s toys, as well as a closeup of a driver’s licence belonging to Rafia Farook, believed to be Farook’s mother. Her personal details were clearly visible.
The shot could be seen as violating a reporter’s duty of care, said Alfred Hermida, director of the University of British Columbia’s school of journalism.
“I think it’s very hard to make an argument that there is a public interest there, because [Rafia Farook] is not the suspect,” he said.