WE NEEDED something to snap us out of our obsession with media malpractice and bring a bit of perspective to our lives, but did it have to be this?

We’d got used to the news being dominated by an issue which, while very serious, also had elements of melodrama, even pantomime. Maybe that sense of theatre being played out, including comedy moments and hissable villains, helped to keep phone hacking at the top of the news bulletins, despite famine in Africa and economic troubles.

Perhaps we needed reminding that while exploiting death and tragedy is contemptible, it’s not quite the same as creating death and tragedy, as events in Norway so eloquently illustrated.

On Friday night I was in The Press offices looking at international news on what is sometimes still anachronistically referred to as “the wire”, and found what appeared to be a fairly comprehensive report on the latest from across the North Sea. It had at least 25 dead, though the toll may rise to 30, it warned. That seemed bad enough, but next morning the radio had 80 dead.

As we know, the figure kept rising, mostly young victims of the massacre on Utoya island, mass tragedy overshadowing the individual tragedy of one of the saddest creations of “celebrity culture”, Amy Winehouse.

How can one react to an event so shocking it almost defies description? Beyond offering sympathy, is there anything practical one can suggest to a stricken people? After the time of mourning, Norway may well find itself as a nation going through a period of self-recrimination, as we British do in such circumstances. If so, it’s to be hoped the Norwegians deal with this in a less hysterical way than we generally do.

That said, while there is no foolproof way to legislate against evil, there is perhaps some merit in Norway looking at greater restrictions on high-powered and automatic firearms, and the quantity of ammunition individuals can accumulate.

Scandinavia may be bigger and wilder than Britain, but you don’t need automatic pistols and hundreds of rounds (I’m guessing the killer must have had that sort of amount of ammo on the island) to deal with fierce animals. That won’t of itself stop murder, or even mass murder, but it may make it more difficult to target large numbers of people.

There is, in addition to its scale, an unusual element to this tragedy. Very often, where mass shootings are concerned, the culprit is among the dead, generally by his own hand.

This time the police have a suspect under lock and key, which means we may, for once, have an explanation of some kind for what has happened, instead of just speculation.

Some people, I imagine, would prefer the perpetrator of such horror to share his victims’ fate, while many Norwegians object to the suspect being able, as he apparently hopes, to make his case in public. For the time being their wish has been granted, as a judge ruled Anders Behring Breivik should appear before a closed court yesterday.

But I have a deep need to know why acts of evil and brutality have taken place, and I hope eventually we will hear the reasons. If that means listening to some insane rantings, so be it. I believe it will be better for Norwegians to know what has led to this, even if – maybe especially if – it reveals a darker side to their own society.

Such revelations may also, ultimately, help those most affected by the killings to come to terms with them. I hope so, because the people of Norway will need all the help they can get to heal this collective wound.