Update: This post has been updated to include the comments by Sylvia Tan who forwarded the Facebook note to The Straits Times.

Talk about the power of social media.

The Straits Times has agreed to stop the routine use of disturbing and insensitive posed photos that accompany crime stories.

This after a Facebook note drawing attention to this derogatory practice was posted on Oct. 8 by a journalist, Andrew MacGregor Marshall.

Marshall had compiled a list of images detailing how the mainstream media routinely employed posed photos with insensitive captions to accompany crime stories, such as rape and abuse cases.

Some of the images include:

Straits Times, June 2013. Note the helpful caption, "Posed photo of a man touching a boy's butt":

October 2013 story on the rape of an underage girl by a pastor:

July 2013 story on suicide by young people:

September 2013 story on abuse of domestic workers:

Marshall wrote in his note, condemning the practice: "The ordinary citizens of Singapore are shown no such respect. The local media trample all over their rights and demonstrate no understanding of the need to minimise the harm that news coverage can do to vulnerable people. They relentlessly hunt and breathlessly peddle lurid and salacious details about sex, murder and abuse, with no regard to the welfare of anyone they write about."

However, the note was not sent to ST by Marshall.

A reader of the note, Sylvia Tan, wrote a letter to ST's Readers' Editor about the images.

She received the following reply today: "We agree and will refrain from such visuals. I have also forwarded your email to The New Paper editor for his consideration."

Tan, who is the editor of Fridae.asia, a LGBT news and social networking website, however, said it is not too much to ask to forward any complaints to the press: "It's so easy to write it off as the media being sensationalistic and take to social media to complain. If we can make the effort to post on Facebook, we can easily email the journalist and/ or editor and tell them what we think."

Marshall said he is happy his post affected the editorial decision at ST but does not claim sole credit as he did not send it to the press: "I'm really pleased that the Straits Times has done the right thing, and will stop using these ridiculous images."

He also said: "There's still a long way to go. What was really offensive about these posed photographs was that they showed Singapore newspapers had no real understanding at all of the seriousness of rape, sexual abuse and similar issues. I'm delighted they will no longer use the photographs, but have they learned to take sensitive issues more seriously and treat victims of crime and abuse with more respect?"

Top photo from here

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