Posting unauthorised pictures of deceased persons is an assault on their dignity, said Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA) chairman Ashwin Raj.

Mr Raj made these comments after funeral pictures surfaced on social media showing the late Johit Prasad (34) and his two children Jeralle Ishav (3) and Tanvi Prasad (5).

Mr Prasad was found dead in his Kinoya home, late last month, after he allegedly knifed his wife, Karishma Lal, and killed his two children before allegedly committing suicide.

Mr Raj said the pictures infringed on the privacy of the bereaving family and asked for the public to exercise reason when posting on social media.

“We need to exercise self-reflexivity and recognise the enormous hurt caused by the circulation of such material. Making a spectacle out of the misery of others in the social media for titillation aided and abetted by pure conjecture (when victims cannot speak for themselves) raises profound ethical questions about who we are as people.”

Mr Raj said this was important as speculation was rife about the circumstances leading to their deaths.

“The case is sub judice and we must refrain from drawing any inferences at this stage and we must be sensitive to the immense trauma that the families have been subjected to.

“The Bill of Rights of our Constitution, under Section 17 Subsection 3 explicitly affirms justifiable limitations to freedom of speech, expression thought and opinion and Subsection 3(b) in particular states that a law may limit or authorise the limitation of these rights in  the interests of “the protection or maintenance of the reputation, privacy, dignity, rights or freedoms of other persons,” he said.

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