By Steve Stratford, Deputy Editor
IT'S all been happening this week, and not in the way we'd like. One of the worst aspects of reporting on local news is when that local news is particularly unpleasant or tragic, and that happened this week with the sad loss of little Sean Laxen in the fast-flowing waters of the River Conwy near Betws-y-Coed.
No journalist wants to write a story about the body of a nine-year-old boy being recovered from the local river, and it's always very difficult to know quite how to handle stories such as this.
On the one hand we have to be careful not to add to the devastating upset the family must be feeling, but on the other hand we still have a duty to report tragedies such as this, and in doing so we have to take (extra special) care that we get the facts right. And getting the facts right means speaking to people who are probably busy enough with the terrible job at hand.
But if we didn't report on terrible accidents such as this, and if we didn't make a point of highlighting just how they happen, we would be doing a disservice to the hundreds, if not thousands, of other tourists from all four corners of the globe who come to North Wales for a holiday, but do not understand the very real dangers of our countryside, its terrain and geography.
While Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team were valiantly joining the 27-hour search for Sean in Betws-y-Coed, they were also winching a mum and her four children to safety from the north face of Tryfan in Snowdonia. A tragedy averted, but more proof that people do not understand the importance of safety first during a family stroll in Snowdonia National Park, or a pleasant walk alongside the rapids at Conwy Falls.
Sometimes, when tragedies such as Sean's occur, it is media coverage - sensitive media coverage - that is the only good that comes of it all. If just one mother, father, grandparent or child reads the Weekly News this week, or watches the TV news or sees on the internet that awful things like this can happen if care is not taken when out and about in the countryside, then that's one less story our reporters have to write in such depressing and upsetting circumstances.
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