It was probably inevitable that a double murder on New Year’s Day would give rise to a sort of morbid excitement and set tongues wagging.

But no one could have predicated the free-for-all which is now taking place.

The media frenzy can be seen on the online news portals (which are allowing the public to post all sorts of comments on every single twist and turn of the story) as well as the articles appearing in the traditional media. Even normally staid newspapers seem to have gone down the tabloid route.

Rumours and speculation are being reported as if they were facts, which is simply not done.   And for what? Because it’s titillating? Personal details about the relatives which are completely irrelevant to what happened keep being added to spice things up.  As for the indiscriminate use of Facebook photos, I have already pointed out that some kind of guidelines from the Press Ethics Commission need to be drawn up about this.

Reproducing every single fabrication and “theory” which have been doing the rounds over the last few days is not journalism. That’s the worse kind of gossip mongering.

While the media have to shoulder their responsibilities for this out-of-control situation, the problem also lies in the fact that there seems to be a lack of proper press briefings by the police.  With a crime of this magnitude, one would expect restraint, but a complete black out of information from official sources has led to sloppy secondhand reporting.

Rather than an official police spokesperson facing the press, we keep reading about “sources”, with each news outlet having a different version of what happened.  Even the autopsy report has been quoted differently with  the number of stab wounds changing each time.

Today Nicholas Gera was laid to rest, with the priest officiating during the funeral Mass asking for  silence out of respect for the bereaved families.  Unfortunately, I truly doubt whether this request will stop the wagging tongues, because unfortunately human nature revels in gossip.

I just wish that before people open their mouths (or take to their keyboards) to repeat yet another malicious rumour, they would stop and ask themselves if they would like it if it was their family being gossiped about like that.