PressEthic

Susan Chira, speaking at the Centre for Global Affairs in New York on Wednesday 26th October, signalled that the Times does not go for, "shock value," when it decides which photos it is going to print.

Referring to the decision to run disturbing shots showing the corpses of American contractors working in Iraq, burnt and then strung up on a bridge (see CNN's cached image, Chira explained that since, "that's what happened," there was nothing wrong with giving front-page coverage to this stark example of anti-American behaviour in Fallujah, though apparently they, "got a lot of pushback," for that issue.

She also admitted that images of children were her, "trigger," implying perhaps that she considered these the most powerful photographic tools available to journalists and editors with which to affect their audience.

Senior journalists and editors are only human after all, so a number of factors come into play when issues such as graphic image publication must be addressed - at least in my view:

1. Readership sensitivities 2. "What bleeds leads" commercial self-interest 3. Personally-imposed limits of decency

Are there other significant aspects which should be included in this list? A discussion on this blog site a few weeks back generated a fair amount of discussion, so feel free to contribute...