Hard to see – but right to publish?

Journalism/Works

In little more than a week, there was the on-camera “live” killing Aug. 26 of two journalists, Alison Parker and Adam Ward; graphic video taken by Ward and by the apparent shooter; and on Sept. 4, the heart-wrenching photos of three-year old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi, lifeless on a Turkish beach, who drowned trying to escape sectarian violence. Should such images be published? Are there limits, in law or in journalism? Prof. Diana Huffman, who lectures on media ethics and media law at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, says at times there is no purpose in publishing – but at other times, there is. A conversation about what we can see – and, perhaps, shouldn’t.