Celebrity news giant TMZ is under fire for publishing an image claiming to show Liam Payne’s body after the former member of boy band One Direction fell to his death from a hotel balcony on Wednesday.

The cropped image that the gossip website posted while the story was still developing showed a tattooed arm and stomach. It said the photo of the body on a wooden terrace was taken at a hotel in Buenos Aires and that Payne, 31, was identified by his tattoos.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

The Hollywood gossip shop removed the image after a huge outcry online. TMZ did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday.

Zing Tsjeng, the former editor-in-chief of Vice, said the posting of the edited footage was “completely indefensible,” while singer Alessia Cara called the news broadcast “gross.”

“TMZ is trying to get clicks and advertising money from the corpse of a young man just minutes after the news of his death,” wrote BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh on X. “Imagine you are a member of Liam Payne’s family and sees this.” TV critic Scott Bryan said: “TMZ needs to remember that the people they report on are human – someone’s son, someone’s father too.”

According to screenshots of the text accompanying the photo, TMZ originally wrote, “We don’t show the whole body, but you can clearly see his tattoos: a clock on his left forearm and a scorpion on his stomach.”

Later, the photos were deleted and the text was edited to note that TMZ “seen a photo showing Liam’s body on the deck of the hotel with tables and chairs nearby,” and that the visible tattoos “helped us early to confirm reports from witnesses.”

Paul Lashmar, a journalist at the City University of London who specializes in media ethics, said there are some cases where publishing a photo of a corpse is justified – for example to demonstrate the horrific scale of war, or if the issue is in the public interest. But in general, Lashmar said, “it is unethical to display the body of someone who died under tragic circumstances.”

“Displaying someone’s corpse under any circumstances can be stressful and unpleasant for that person’s family members and their friends. It’s something you don’t usually do,” he said. “And if you use human empathy, you would think, ‘If that happened to me, would I want someone to publish a photo of it?’”

Born in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, Payne is survived by his parents, two sisters and a 7-year-old son named Bear, whom he shared with ex-partner and British singer Cheryl, whose maiden name is Cheryl Tweedy.

Authorities say the circumstances of Payne’s death after he fell from the third floor of his room at the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Argentina are unclear and are under investigation.

TMZ, which has made a name for itself in recent years by being the first to break a number of high-profile stories, has previously come under scrutiny for its reporting on celebrity deaths.

After Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash along with his daughter and seven others in 2020, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department called out the outlet during a press conference for allegedly publishing their story before officials could notify the families. “It would be extremely disrespectful to understand that your loved one … has been killed and you hear about it from TMZ,” then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva said. TMZ founder Harvey Levin later claimed that TMZ had spoken to Bryant’s representatives before spreading the story.

“I think the lesson to be learned is that when you run a news website based on exclusive, sensational material, you have to be very careful ethically, because the temptation is to always go one step further than other news organizations. Lashmar said. “That one step can often be questionable ethical territory.”

Related content

Harris and Trump take divergent paths in a tie

Obama warns black men about their hesitation to support Harris

Photographers remember Hurricane Helene scenes they will never forget