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LONDON - Women's groups have condemned a Spanish TV talk show following the death of a woman who turned down an on-air marriage proposal from her ex-boyfriend.
And a leading judge called for a review of such programmes following the death of Svetlana Orlova, a 30-year-old mother of one.
Five days after appearing on the Antena 3 program Diario de Patricia (Patricia's Diary), Orlova was found dead at her home in Alicante with her throat cut.
Her ex-boyfriend, Ricardo Navarro, 30, who had also appeared on the daytime show, has been arrested but denies any involvement in her death.
TV researchers reportedly failed to discover Ms Orlova had previously requested a restraining order against Navarro.
Spain's Federation of Progressivist Women was reportedly teaming up with other women's groups in the country to file a case against the TV station.
"We believe that media professionals should be capable of assessing when a situation is delicate when treating women," spokeswoman Covadonga Naredo was quoted as saying on Sky News in Britain.
Valencia Supreme Court President Juan Luis de la Rua said the consequences of such TV shows were "yet to be evaluated".
"Those shows are often roads or means that add fire to a heated situation," he told Sky.
"Perhaps we should re-examine those TV programs and their potential consequences."
Lobbyists are also calling for Patricia's Diary, which regularly attracts two million viewers, to be taken off air.
But a spokesman for Antena 3 said the station had done all it could to determine whether any of its guests were dangerous.
"Antena 3 utterly condemns this killing," he said.
Baldomero Limon of Boomerang, the production company responsible for the programme, said producers were devastated, but denied responsibility.
"Nothing made us suspect that a tragedy like this could occur," he was quoted as saying in Britain's The Times newspaper.
Orlova had no idea why she was going on the show before Navarro entered the studio and asked her to marry him.
"You are everything for me, without you I am nothing. I want to live with you forever," he said during the show taped on November 14 and broadcast later that day.
Orlova was clearly disturbed by Navarro's proposal, saying only "no" when show host Patricia Gaztanaga pressed her for a reply.
Orlova's death extends an already long list of violent incidents involving people who have had details of their private lives broadcast on television.
In 1997, Ana Orantes, 60, was doused with petrol and burnt alive by her estranged husband after appearing on a Spanish TV show to talk about the abuse of women.
Also in Spain, an 18-year-old woman was killed by her boyfriend in 2004 after telling a television program he had abused her.
In a famous US case, a man shot and killed a male friend who had revealed he was sexually attracted to him on The Jenny Jones Show in 1995.
Earlier this year, a judge branded British daytime talk programme The Jeremy Kyle Show human "bear-baiting" while sentencing a man for head-butting a fellow guest.
David Staniforth, 45, was fined for attacking Larry Mahoney, 39.
Passing sentence at Manchester Magistrates Court, District Judge Alan Berg said the show's producers should have been in the dock with Staniforth.
"It is for no more and no less than titillating members of the public who have nothing better to do with their mornings than sit and watch this show - which is a human form of bear baiting which goes under the guise of entertainment," he said.
- AAP
