Leaked Photo of Battered Rihanna Makes Me Cringe

The web and blog world is buzzing again over a graphic photo surfaced on the Internet, reportedly of Rihanna with injuries from the alleged assault that occurred on February 8, 2009, by Chris Brown. Reportedly TMZ got there hands on the photo first, which they often do, and many other sites posted there after. The picture is a close-up of a young woman with her eyes closed and bruises and cuts on her forehead, lips and cheeks. Rihanna, who has not appeared in public since the alleged attack hours before the Grammy Awards, turns 21 on Friday. Not a very happy birthday present.

Los Angeles police has launched an internal investigation of the photograph, as it has the appearance of one taken during an official domestic violence investigation. If it was leaked from inside, it’s a serious breech of confidentiality of victims of domestic violence, and someone will be punished. Victims of domestic abuse and rape, who have long been accorded special rights in the criminal justice system. We often use TMZ as a resource for our stories and it’s understood that it’s there intention and livelihood to dig for dirt. But this is one of many times law enforcement has leaked what should have been confidential information to TMZ. Because this is a high profile case action might be taken, but what of the many other times? Publishing the photos, which many sites immediately did is another matter. To me running the picture humiliates Rihanna at a time when she’s already in emotional agony. Sensational pictures like the Rihanna shot bring publishers large amounts of traffic, but at the price of exploitation. Perhaps a benefit of the photo coming out is that shows the seriousness of an attack that many people have sought to minimize. By the way it’s not lost on me that ‘celebrity gossip’ itself is many times exploitative and in essence this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.  I accept that criticism but there are boundaries right?