TV Channels Defend Airing Virginia Tech Killer's Tape

BBC News and Sky News executives have defended showing the Virginia Tech killer's video rant, arguing it was a relevant part of telling the full story behind the horrific massacre.

However, the BBC limited itself to using clips of Cho Seung-hui's tirade, which first aired on the US network NBC - and, 24 hours after its first transmission, the corporation is no longer using moving images on its bulletins or news channels, according to the BBC's head of TV news, Peter Horrocks.

John Ryley, the editor of Sky News, said the tape gave a "crucial" insight into what motivated Cho to gun down 32 people in America's worst campus massacre before killing himself.

"In my opinion they [NBC] were absolutely right to do it," he told the Guardian's Media Talk podcast

"Journalists have a responsibility to tell people what is going on in the world - though the killings were horrific, it is a responsibility on the journalist to get the fullest picture of why those killings happened.

"Whether you like it or not the tapes that were aired by NBC are a crucial bit of building up the jigsaw of what motivated the guy when he carried out the killings. That's harsh, but that's the world we live in."

Mr Horrocks said the video had been "editorially relevant" for audiences, though he stressed the importance of contextualising clips with expert opinion.

Mr Horrocks added that the BBC had not replayed "endlessly" large chunks of footage - mailed to NBC by Cho himself during his rampage - on its 24-hour news channels, BBC News 24 and BBC World.

"We are well aware of the concern that the video may lead others to copy or emulate him," he said on his BBC blog

"However, given that the video is already widely available, we had to judge whether withholding the video from BBC audiences was the appropriate thing to do.

"We decided that playing short clips, responsibly contextualised, could aid understanding of the story."

Mr Horrocks said that if the BBC were to receive a similar tape, he would first speak to the police and also try to inform family liaison officers so that relatives of victims could be warned.

"Having made those initial calls I believe the BBC in receipt of such a video would probably have transmitted some, although not all, of it," he added.

Mr Ryley said Sky would also run a tape of that kind after speaking to family liaison officers. "We would run it ... but we would attempt to ensure that those people who might be upset by seeing it were able to see it," he added.

NBC's decision to broadcast the Cho tape has provoked anger in the US from the police, students and victims' relatives.

Media critics have also argued that giving the tape such a wide airing satisfies Cho's apparent desire for posthumous notoriety and could encourage future killers.

Parents of some of Cho's victims were appalled by the video and cancelled planned interviews with NBC.

The head of Virginia state police, Steve Flaherty, said he was "rather disappointed in the editorial decision to broadcast these disturbing images".

Steve Capus, the NBC president, defended the broadcast: "This is, I think, as close as we will ever come to being inside of the mind of a killer, and I thought that it needed to be released.

"Pretty much every single news organisation all around the world has made the same decision, that it was appropriate to release this information."

Fox News said it would stop running the images and other US TV networks said they would limit their use.