TMZ has defended their decision to publish images of Liam Payne’s dead body following public backlash.
The news outlet reported the late singer’s death on Wednesday (16 October), after Payne fell from a third floor balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
His body was found in the internal hotel courtyard, and TMZ shared photos of Payne’s arm and waist covered in identifying tattoos on their website.
Liam Payne has died at the age of 31 (Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
The now-deleted images were taken ‘on a wooden deck at the hotel with tables and chairs nearby’.
The pictures were met with outrange online, with celebrity presenter Rylan Clark tweeting: “TMZ f**king shame on you. Disgrace.”
Singer Alessia Cara also wrote: “You’re gross @TMZ.”
Another wrote: “TMZ posting part of a photo of Liam Payne’s dead body in an article announcing his death is beyond deplorable.
“I can’t tell if I’m losing my mind lately or if society has always been this overtly morally decrepit.”
Amid the backlash, TMZ executive producer Michael Babcock has defended the decision to use the images.
TMZ has defended sharing the images (Fox 5)
Appearing on Fox 5 New York on Thursday (17 October), he said: “There’s a balance, and that’s obviously a conversation that newsrooms across the world have – you want to be sensitive to the family and to the friends and also while working a news story.
“When the information was coming in, police had not yet confirmed that it was Liam, so what was done on the TMZ website, there was an image – did not show the full image, didn’t show his face – but that showed his arm and his abdomen, where he has some very recognisable tattoos, so that’s sort of used as a way to confirm, or to match up the tattoos at a point where police had not yet confirmed his identity.
“And then, once they did, obviously, that photo was removed.
Fans in Argentina mourning the singer’s death (Marcos Brindicci/Getty Images)
“I mean, it’s just a terribly horrific and sad story. It’s something obviously that shouldn’t have happened, and this guy had so much life left to live and you feel horrible for everybody.”
According to a transcript shared by the Buenos Aires police department, two calls were made by hotel staff, asking for assistance for a guest who was ‘intoxicated by drugs and alcohol‘.
Police said Payne’s hotel room had been ‘in complete disarray’ with ‘various items broken’.
A post-mortem examination report showed that the singer died of multiple traumas and ‘internal and external haemorrhage’.
LADbible Group has contacted TMZ for comment.