Geramm regrets photographer punched while covering MH17 victim's funeral

NGO Gerakan Media Marah (Geramm) regrets the incident befalling New Straits Times photographer Aizuddin Saad while on duty at the Nirvana Memorial Centre in Sungai Besi this morning while he was covering the arrival of remains of the MAS flight MH17 tragedy.

In a statement posted on its Facebook, Geramm expresses its empathy with the family members of victims, the association is of the stand that it is highly-inappropriate for any quarters to inflict any form of harm or harass media officials who are on duty.

Based on video footage and photographs of the incident, Aizuddin is seen to suffer injuries on his face and damages to his camera after he was punched by a family member of a victim.

It can be seen from the video that a family member of the victim had lurched forward and punched Aizuddin who was standing among the photographers on duty.

It must be admitted that the coverage of MH17 (much like other tragedies) is a real test of the media's professionalism in managing the sensitivities of family members involved.

Geramm, however, urges all quarters to understand and cooperate with the media who are only performing their duties without intention to add on to the burden faced by family members.

On Tuesday, the nine remains of the MH17 victims who returned home are Malaysian pilots Captain Wan Amran Wan Hussin, flight officer Captain Eugene Choo Jin Leong, steward Sanjid Singh Sandhu, Paul Goes and his wife Kaelamayajay Goes, Fan Shun Po and his wife Loh Yan Hwa, Subashni Jretnam and Muhd Firdaus Abdul Rahim.

Their remains were brought back by commercial flight MH19 from Amsterdam which carried five coffins and four urns.

This is the third batch of remains that have made their way home, with the first 20 remains arriving on Aug 22 and another three two days later.

Of the total 43 Malaysians perished in the downing of MH17 over Ukraine on July 17, 32 Malaysian victims’ remains have been identified so far.