War and Family - The photo that's caused a stir

(With thanks to TODAY)

The photo that's caused a stir
05:55 AM Sep 07, 2009

WASHINGTON - It is a graphic image of the harsh realities of war: A
fatally wounded young Marine lying crumpled in the mud, his vulnerable
face visible to the camera. And it is one the United States Defence
Secretary would rather you did not see.

Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard died of his injuries soon after in
southern Afghanistan. Now, the release of this record of the
21-year-old's last moments has prompted furious debate over the
sanitisation of war at a critical time for the military offensive.

The US Defence Secretary, Mr Robert Gates, condemned the decision by the
news agency Associated Press (AP) to publish the picture. "I cannot
imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard's death has caused
his family.

Why your organisation would purposefully defy the family's wishes,
knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish, is beyond me,"
he wrote in a letter to AP CEO Tom Curley last Thursday.

Mr Gates followed up with a phone call "begging" Mr Curley not to
publish it.
However, AP, whose photographer Julie Jacobson took the shot after being
caught in the middle of an ambush while accompanying Marines on patrol,
said it had acted only after a "period of reflection" and argued that
the picture illustrated the sacrifice and the bravery of those fighting
in Afghanistan.
"We feel it is our journalistic duty to show the reality of the war
there, however unpleasant and brutal that sometimes is," said Mr
Santiago Lyon, director of photography for AP.

It also recalls the controversy four years ago when the Pentagon finally
released pictures of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq,
overturning a ban imposed in 1991 on the US media photographing military
caskets in transit.

In that case, the concerns of families were also repeatedly cited as
justification for suppressing images of the dead, and they were only
published after a freedom of information request.

About 20 American newspapers and some websites used the image, alongside
photographs of lance corporal Bernard's life in uniform and his memorial
service last week.

AP said the images had been shown to his family in advance, but said
that reporters had not specifically asked the family's permission to
publish them and that his parents had not wanted the photographs to be
used. "There was no question that the photo had news value," AP senior
managing editor John Daniszewski said. "But we also were very aware the
family wished for the picture not to be seen."

After lengthy internal discussions, AP concluded that the photo was a
part of the war they needed to convey. AP had received dozens of emails
and phone calls about its decision to publish the image, many of them
critical.

But there were also supportive responses. Mr Dan Cahalan, an Afghanistan
veteran, wrote that "This is one of the realest accounts from a
journalist I have ever read and just wanted to thank (Jacobson) for her
honest reporting of the war." THE GUARDIAN, AP