Bolivia TV broadcasts coronavirus patient dying

A Bolivian TV channel sparked controversy after broadcasting live the final minutes of a coronavirus patient’s life while doctors tried desperately to save him.

The No Lies programme said it took the decision to show a Covid-19 patient’s death in a hospital in Santa Cruz to jolt into action authorities who had neglected the health services.

The show airs nightly on the Santa Cruz-based PAT channel, in a region with some 60 percent of Bolivia’s 21,000 cases and around half its 679 deaths.

The broadcast in Bolivia showed the patient’s death over a 30-minute period as doctors tried to resuscitate him.

The country’s ombudswoman Nadia Cruz slammed the broadcast for ‘sensationalism,’ saying it ‘repeatedly and morbidly ‘ exhibited ‘images showing cardiopulmonary treatment being carried out on a person, which unfortunately ended in death.’

The broadcast ‘evidently conflicts with the national legal order,’ Cruz said, adding that it ‘can generate a kind of collective fear.’

Her office is an independent body appointed to investigate complaints against the government or public organizations.

The broadcast was widely criticized on social networks, including by prominent journalists.

However, the government has yet to comment on the controversy.