Written by Shafiaina
Richard Huckle case is one of the latest issue regarding to child pornography which involved two countries, Malaysia and British. Richard Huckle, 30, who from Ashford, Kent, was gained access to the children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while posing as a Christian English teacher doing good deeds. Huckle, who worked as a freelance photographer who targeted Malaysian children while working in Malaysia faced multiple life sentences after admitting 71 offences of child sexual abuse.
He was charged under a number of offences against children between the ages of six months to 12 years old from 2006 till 2014. Through the offences, he was pleaded guilty to 22 carry discretionary life and 18 of these are multiple incident counts. This case has been reported widely by local and international news media.
A local news organisation, The Star online, with headline “Pedophile Richard Huckle who abused Malaysian children jailed for life” on June 6, 2016 reported that British police has arrested Huckle at London Gatwick Airport in December 2014 together with his heavily-encrypted computer and camera once he returned home from Malaysia to spend Christmas eve with his parents.
The media mentioned that Huckle was sentenced a minimum jail term of 23 years for his charges. The court heard that Huckle had written a specific guide to child abuse that he intended to publish for profit. Huckle posted pictures of the abuse of boys and girls on website True Love Zone (TLZ) together with the youngest victim believed to have been around six months old.
From international news coverage perspectives, this case was reported by several news media. The Independent with headline “Richard Huckle: Paedophile faces multiple life sentences for abusing “up to 200 children” in Malaysia” was covered this case on June 1, 2016.
The media also reported that the National Crime Agency officials have discovered a large amount of indecent pictures and videos Huckle took of himself abusing the girls and boys and over 20,000 indecent images were found on his computer while he was arrested on arrival gate at Gatwick Airport on December 19, 2014.
The comparison news coverage between local and international media can be seen through the content of the news itself. For local media like The Star Online, the Sun Daily and Malay Mail Online contents were gained from outside sources such as Reuters. The contents of the news described more about the amount of offences made by Richard Huckle and the decision made by the court. While, the news contents reported by international media were more detailed as the media revealed the consequences of the case from a different parties.
For the practicalities of the media, the local news media was hyperlinked reports from other local news media. The news information in The Star can be linked with Malay Mail Online. The local news media were acting ethically which reporting were made by using information from trusted source like Reuters and Bernama. The texts were excerpt from Malaysian Catholic Church theologian and interviewed had been done with the Malaysia Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak about his opinions regarding the Richard Huckle’s case.