Sunshine Week: Your Right to Know

A Belmont Club reader sent a link to the Associated Press Photo Managers site
which contains guidance to editors on When
to Run a Chilling Photo. The author, Naomi Halperin, begins by describing
her reaction to a schoolteacher who balked at showing photographs of mutilated
Americans hanging from the Fallujah bridge to her class.

One image, seen in many newspapers including The Morning Call, appeared
when violence erupted in Fallujah and four American contractors were killed.
... The single letter that stands out in my mind was from a high school
teacher who routinely brought the newspaper to her classroom to share with her
students. She wrote: "After viewing the photo of the American soldiers
hanging on the bridge in Iraq, I will no longer be bringing my paper to school
to use for the classroom. The students were very upset and they wanted to know
the names of the soldiers because they have relatives serving in our military.
They wanted to know why the newspaper would show our soldiers' charred bodies
hanging there in such disrespect. ...

My first reaction was to consider that some of her students she wanted to
protect were the very age of many of the soldiers fighting in Iraq. I answered
her letter the next day: "... Running a photo that we know will disturb
folks is never an easy decision. ... After careful consideration we decided
not to hide the truth, as brutal as it was. The image, very reminiscent of the
dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Somalia, was too
important for the editors here at The Morning Call to ignore. It is a powerful
photo. I suspect this particular picture will prove to be a historical
flashpoint image that helps define the Iraqi conflict and who we are as a
people. Perhaps in the future, you as an educator might be compelled to look
at these tragic events as an opportunity for discussion. By keeping the paper
from your students, you close the only window of the world for a lot of kids
so I hope you will reconsider bringing your paper to the classroom. I know
that you and I will probably never agree on this subject but I respect your
views and will take it to heart."

Ms. Halperin, I think it is fair to say, is arguing it is the duty of editors
to convey the truth, however painful; and that it was in the long-term interest
of the teacher's students to have their eyes opened to the world as it is. But
because the quest for the truth is often an adversarial process, it is not
surprising to find accounts of the same event which cast a wholly different
construction on things. Powerline
printed an angry letter from reader Kevin O'Brien who charged that the AP
behaved unethically in Fallujah and that their account of events is poisoned as
a consequence.

AFP, AP and AP TV had advance notice of the murders of contractors in
Fallujah last spring, so that they could position themselves on scene. ...
Apparently the reporters were tipped to go to a specific location. They were
not told exactly what would take place, but they knew it was going to be a
terrorist action of some type. For security reasons, the terrorists give the
reporters very little notice -- just enough to get there, if everything goes
right. They were told exactly what street corner to be on, where they would be
expected by and under the protection of the terrorists. ("If you're
anywhere else, we can't guarantee your safety.") ... After the
contractors were dead and their bodies looted, the reporters stayed and
encouraged the mob that had gathered to mutilate the bodies. I am told by our
Arabic speakers that they can be heard egging the youths on during the video
of the mutilations. "Go ahead, cut him up. What are you afraid of?"

I have no idea if these charges are true; Mr. O'Brien's allegations would
surely outrage many journalists working for the Associated Press. But why, in
principle, should Mr. O'Brien's allegations be withheld from students where
the photos of contractors should not? All of the arguments advanced by Ms.
Halperin apply to the Powerline article as well. The obvious response would be
that Mr. O'Brien's allegations are 'false' while the the picture of the
contractors hanging like meat from the bridge is 'true', though a moment's
reflection will show that one does not disprove the other. Yet as Ms. Halperin
is at pains to point out, the real truth is not contained in the actual
photograph but in is its larger signification. "The image, very reminiscent
of the dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Somalia, was
too important for the editors here at The Morning Call to ignore. It is a
powerful photo. I suspect this particular picture will prove to be a historical
flashpoint image that helps define the Iraqi conflict and who we are as a
people." One could argue that O'Brien is asking equally fundamental
questions about who you trust to convey the news. Ultimately, the case for
preferring the AP's account and dismissing Mr. O' Brien's rests upon an appeal
to the authority of the AP brand name. It rests on trust. The public knows the
AP and doesn't know Mr. O'Brien, hence it is the AP's account that represents
the canon.

Yet ironically we do know Mr. O'Brien, who at least has a name, while
we will probably never know the identity of the "brave
Iraqi" photographer who captured the execution of Iraqi election worker
on Haifa Street. Jack
Stokes, the Associated Press director of media relations explained how that
photographer was recruited.

Insurgents want their stories told as much as other people and some are
willing to let Iraqi photographers take their pictures. It's important to
note, though, that the photographers are not "embedded" with the
insurgents. They do not have to swear allegiance or otherwise join up
philosophically with them just to take their pictures.

Because of the dangers inherent in this situation the AP believed
photographer's the identity had to be protected. Salon
quotes sources as saying "The photographer, whose identity the AP is
withholding due to safety concerns, was likely 'tipped off to a demonstration
that was supposed to take place on Haifa Street' said the AP source, who was not
at liberty to comment by name". A Belmont
Club reader wonders who the photographer is being protected from since
"he was allowed to not only photograph the executions, but also live to
deliver them to be published" so "the terrorists already know who he
is". Since they knew him well enough to send him the "tip" in the
first place the reader's question seems perfectly reasonable.

And deserving of an answer. The Associated Press says it encourages questioning
and wants the public to know the truth. In a
press release dated December 14, 2004, AP CEO Tom Curley warned of the
"trend toward more secrecy" and promised to resist it.

Curley and other media leaders have announced a 2005 initiative called
"Sunshine Sunday-Sunshine Week: Your Right to Know" to foster
a public dialogue on the importance of maintaining access to government
information. ... "We ourselves need to be out there fighting for
access," Curley said. ... Founded in 1848, The Associated Press is the
world's oldest and largest newsgathering organization, providing content to
more than 15,000 news outlets with a daily reach of 1 billion people around
the world. Its multimedia services are distributed by satellite and the
Internet to more than 120 nations.

The public right to classified information when the larger interest compels
its release has been widely debated. It seems clear that the same standard
should apply, in certain circumstances, to information about the way the news is
obtained and prepared. Let the Sunshine in.

Update

Glenn
Reynolds links to Egyptian blogger Big
Pharaoh who takes up the Haifa Street murders.

The blogoshere is currently discussing the issue of how an Associated Press photographer managed to stand in the middle of one of Iraq's (and probably the world's) most dangerous roads and shot a picture after another of a ruthless murder in the middle of the day.
... The case at hand has to do with the brutal killing of 2 Iraqi heroes whose
only mistake was trying to organize an election in their country. This is a
moral case and we, the friends of Iraq and of the troops serving there, should
not let this incident pass unnoticed.

Follow the link to read the rest.