British broadcaster Sky News has apologized after one of its reporters began digging through luggage of a passenger at the crash site of downed flight Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 live on air Sunday, New York Daily News reported. The incident came as Australia called for respect for the bodies of the 298 who perished in the disaster, amid reports that the crash site was being trampled and interfered with as investigators struggled to reach the site due to conflict.
In the news broadcast of the devastating crash, which killed 298 people, presenter Colin Brazier was shown nonchalantly rummaging through personal belongings in an opened suitcase belonging to a Flight MH17 victim on Sunday afternoon, before he decided to stop. "We shouldn't really be doing this, I suppose," Brazier said regretfully.
"Today whilst presenting from the site of the MH17 air crash, Colin Brazier reflected on the human tragedy of the event and showed audiences the content of one of the victims' bags," a Sky News spokesperson said. "Colin immediately recognized that this was inappropriate and said so on air. Both Colin and Sky News apologize profusely for any offence caused."
Colin was intending to show viewers the piles and piles of luggage at the side of a road, carried away from the horrific crash site by workers. "It's ghoulish. It's heart-wrenching. It's difficult," Brazier said moments before pointing to one suitcase. "We're not showing you pictures of the body parts and horribly charred remains which litter the fields and roadsides here."
Brazier's photographer follows his lead to peer upon an "I heart Amsterdam" T-shirt, a book on Holland, articles of clothing, papers and shoes. Brazier turns to a particular suitcase laid out in the grassy field and points to its ordinary contents, a set of keys and a pink child's bag, but "immediately recognized that this was inappropriate," a Sky News spokeswoman told the Guardian.
After mere seconds of searching the suitcase, Brazier stepped away and started talking about OSCE investigators scheduled to arrive on Monday.
The footage was greeted with anger on social media, with upset viewers claiming the British news channel violated the privacy of 298 victims who perished aboard the Malaysia Airlines plane shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine, Huffington Post reported. Many slammed the segment for being "disgraceful" and "inappropriate."
BBC presenter Jacqui Oatley tweeted that she was "astonished" while Joe Watson, a professor of Mass Media at Baker University described it as a "horrible moment for journalism," Agence France-Presse reported. "Those items are essentially sacred things now for the relatives. Just appalling," wrote Shelagh Fogarty, a BBC radio reporter.
