Crash A320: media between hysteria and retained

"There was a fairly strict rule is to keep a safe distance and respect (...) must respect the privacy of families"

The 1,500 souls Seyne-les-Alpes will probably never forget this 24 March 2015. This small village in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, after the crash of the Airbus A320 in the surrounding mountains, saw land hundreds policemen, gendarmes, firemen, experts, officials, and a horde of journalists. Nearly 1,500 from around the world, the day after the tragedy. An extraordinary media roll up to the event, but not always in the profession and that people understand, sometimes with resignation.

"I understand. It is still 150 victims. So I understand that there are many journalists, but nothing to talk about, it turned around, "said one resident.

"Every time there is dead, the media are there for and we will tell you more of a disaster than someone who has done something good, that saved someone, that c is like that, it is society that is like this, "said another.

If French-hour news channels have been pinned by their colleagues for their hunting scoop sometimes at the limit of decency, foreign media themselves, followed very strict rules, and privileged absolute respect for the families.

"We will not push someone in front of the camera if it does not want it, it will be in the reservoir, and even if someone wanted to say something, I'm not sure I will circulate. This is an extreme situation, we lost a loved one, these are extreme situations, you want to protect people from themselves, "says a German journalist.

Even modesty on the part of dozens of Spanish envoys, the largest media roll out of memory journalist Spain.

Our special correspondent in Seyne-les-Alpes, Laurence Alexandrowicz, met one of our Spanish colleagues. She asked him how he, as a journalist, were working with the families of the victims. If there was a rule, a limit.

"Yesterday we arrived by bus from Barcelona with thirteen families and there is a fairly strict rule is to keep a safe distance and respect, and we will follow this rule, that is to say, for families, it is a very hard time and we must respect their privacy, "he explained to our reporter.

Distance, respect for the families, all the media present at the scene of the drama did not all, far from it, respected the rules. As for the name of the officer suspected of having deliberately caused the fall of the camera, he was to be revealed? The issue is controversial in any case in the German media.