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Last week, pictures of an alleged prostitute, who was stabbed to death by a client for stealing his money, went viral on social media.

The lady was lying in a pool of blood naked, and as many people as possible shared her pictures, without pausing to think, the painful experience her family, friends and loved ones could be going through.

These days, pictures of lifeless bodies of accident victims are shared with impunity. We are all guilty of this unfortunate spectacle, because all one needs is a phone with a camera and the pictures are on social media.

Citizen journalism is without boundaries and ethics, so gleefully we try to outdo each other, as to who will be the first to break the bad and sad news with pictures.

Presently, in addition to the problems we have to deal with as a country, is the spate of suicide and suicide attempts going on across various sectors of the society.

Pictures of suicide victims hanging from trees, always find their way onto social media, for whatever purpose, no one can tell.

We have all lost our sense of sympathy and empathy; we are now in a competition for who will break the news first.

The security men and women are paid to protect life and property, we should see them as our friends and the police station should be the first point of call when we encounter some of these incidents, instead of rushing to social media.

The dead deserve some dignity, more especially when they are naked, no one, knows how he or she is going to die, a culprit today, can be a victim tomorrow.

For us at The Herald, this is a serious issue that should attract the attention of the security agencies, because we are all at the mercy of these citizen journalists in our hour or moment of need.