Maybe time for media to pause also

I’ve been thinking more on Jami-Lee’s admittance to a mental health facility.

Normally anyone who gets admitted will not have media stories about it.

Now I quite accept that due to the furore of the last fortnight that of course media had to report this particular admittance. You couldn’t ignore it. So no criticism of what has been reported.

But I don’t think there is any public interest in doing further stories, until such a time as Jami-Lee wants to say something. That might be in a week. Or it might be further down the road.

I don’t think it is conducive to his recovery to have daily stories updating people on whether he is still “inside”, or having comments from others about him.

There will potentially be events which will be newsworthy, such an action under the Electoral Act. But outside such events, I think the dignified thing to do will be to show some restraint and let Jami-Lee get support and treatment. We don’t need to know details. We don’t need to know if he has been discharged or not. If Jami-Lee wants us to know, then that is different.

Of course at some stage there needs to be some decisions and they will be newsworthy. But until then, let’s focus on allowing someone to get well.