PR political correctness
Friday, May 4 is Walk Safely to School Day : a noble cause that’s worth supporting, to be sure. Indeed, it is “a Community Event seeking to promote Road Safety, Health, Public Transport and the Environment” (their inappropriate capitals, not mine).
Like many newspapers across Australia, the Kalgoorlie Miner is pleased to help promote this initiative.
Our photographer went to a local school this afternoon to get a picture.
In doing so she was lectured by a well-meaning soul who insisted on particular requirements. These were conveyed in an official document headlined “2007 WSTSD Photography Guidelines”.
Among the rules were:
- If the child has a ball it should be in a string or plastic bag;
- Parent/carer and children waiting at/walking to a bus stop should be photographed well away from the road;
- Every pedestrian (adults and children) should be shown with head turned to right or left, looking, listening and concentrating on crossing the road, rather than smiling at the camera; etc.
A PDF copy of the document is here (379kb) . These guidelines were obviously designed by the central office for local co-ordinators and were not intended to be presented as rules for the media.
I do wonder though at the necessity of such instructions. Surely commonsense can be allowed free rein.
In our case, to satisfy the cultural diversity clause, a disabled boy was roped in and disrupted proceedings, making the whole scene rather farcical.
These articles might be of interest:
