Monday evening, two days after the death of the toddler Rayan, who had been taken from a 32-meter-deep pit on Saturday where he had been locked up for days, a reporter from the Moroccan channel Chouf TV managed to enter his parents’ house. There the man goes through the personal belongings of the five-year-old victim. He grabs a backpack for the camera, takes out the things that were in it and even starts to smell the socks of the toddler. In the living room, Rayan’s parents are stunned and defeated on a gold sofa with blue patterns. “What are you going to do with his stuff?” asks the woman who acts as a camera woman with her mobile. The interview will last twenty minutes. The parents have just buried their son.
Through channels such as Chouf TV, Morocco continued to sympathize for four days with the rescue operation for Rayan, who had fallen into the narrow deep well on February 1. Chouf TV (in Dutch ‘Kijk tv’), an online platform with almost 20 million followers, is at the forefront of the entire rescue operation. Their live stream attracts the most viewers. The channel works with amateur journalists across the country who use their mobile phones to tell stories not easily seen in the traditional media; often stories from the neighborhood and at people’s homes. The channel earns its money through advertisements, among other things.
sensationalism
On Saturday, February 5, rescue workers finally reached Rayan, but it turned out that the boy had also died. Where pity and perhaps sensationalism first prevailed when following the news, Morocco starts scratching its head in the week after Rayan’s death. Wasn’t Rayan and his parents’ privacy seriously violated? Did the intrusiveness of the press hinder his rescue? And what role did the authorities play?
The Chouf TV interview, for example, generates many disapproving comments – even though the video is viewed more than 7 million times at the same time. Moroccan newspapers disapprove of the ethical misdeeds of online platforms. The Independent Council of Journalists in Morocco (CNP) has already expressed criticism while the rescue operation is still underway. The Council does not agree with the working methods of a number of online platforms, including Chouf TV. “We are deeply horrified at the news coverage of Rayan’s rescue operation. There are numerous violations that violate the ethics of journalism.” For example, the Council blames the web channels for sharing images of the boy on which his face is smeared with blood. “with traumatizing consequences for the next of kin”, according to CNP†
Live streams show Rayan, covered in dust at the bottom of the well; his chest moves up and down slowly
pink bathrobe
Rayan’s fate made world news of the Moroccan municipality of Tamorot in the northern province of Chefchaouen. 24 hours after Rayan fell into the well on Tuesday 1 February, the first local journalists arrive. The hashtag #SaveRayan gets a lot of attention on social media and goes viral. International media such as The GuardianBBC, The Washington Post and Al Jazeera pick up the story later Thursday evening, and the long-running community of some 24,500 residents, mostly poor farmers, becomes the story of the day.
The government is not standing still. A government spokesman stated on state television on Thursday that the people should have confidence in the rescue operation. Not much later, images are shared via the many live streams showing Rayan lying under the dust at the bottom of the well and his chest slowly moving up and down. The local authorities would have made those images by lowering a mobile phone on a rope into the well, it is unclear when exactly. It is also unclear who decided to take the images and publish them.
The massive media attention is causing the crowd around the well to get bigger and bigger. Moroccans from all over the country travel to the village in the north, they say to show support.
Rayan’s mother barely utters a word when the king offers her condolences on her loss
When rescuers approached Rayan through a parallel tunnel on Saturday, February 5, the parents are picked up by the local authorities and placed in the midst of the crowd, without shielding them. When the emergency services have reached the boy and he is taken to an ambulance sheltered on a stretcher, the message is initially shared through all local news channels and a number of international ones, such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya that he is still alive. But after a few moments, the royal house itself comes through state television with a statement: Ryan passed away.
‘Thank you, but I’m still in shock’
Immediately his parents, still in the middle of the crowd, are put in front of a camera by local journalists, and are handed a telephone with the Moroccan king on the other end of the line. Rayan’s mother stares straight ahead in her pink bathrobe with a light brown scarf wrapped around her. She barely utters a word when the king offers her condolences on the loss of her son. Her husband, in gray djellaba, looks the same.
Rayan is transferred in an ambulance to Rabat, where an autopsy is performed in a military hospital. His parents are driving. For a moment there is talk that the boy will be buried there in the capital, more than 300 kilometers from his native village. He will eventually be buried in Tamorot on Monday afternoon.
For Chouf TV, the story is not yet finished. During the interview after the funeral, the amateur reporter not only has questions for the parents, but also an announcement: they will receive a furnished house from Chouf TV, which is paid for from the proceeds of the live stream. “What do you have to say to that?”, the reporter asks Mother Ouassima, who still looks numb. “Thanks,” she says resignedly. “But I’m still in shock and can’t believe I’ve lost my son.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of February 10, 2022
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