Tabloid must pay compensation to family for pictures of dead body

The tabloid daily Šíp must pay compensation to two parents for publishing photos of their deceased son, the Supreme Court has ruled. Judge Pavel Pavlík said that the tabloid violated the parents’ “right to reverence” when it published photographs on the internet and in print of the burnt body of their son after a traffic accident in 2006. The parents originally sued for one million crowns each in personal damages; the Supreme Court imposed compensation of 50,000 for each. The case was also dealt with in 2008 by the Czech Journalists’ Syndicate, which agreed that the pictures were not in the public interest and had truly traumatised the family.