Madam, - I object to the publication today (April 1st) in certain newspapers, not yours, of the photo of a mob poking and laughing at the charred and mutilated remains of one of the victims of yesterday's horrific events in Fallujah.
I feel that publishing this photo on the front page and a second equally distressing photo on an inside page was in bad taste, insensitive and an insult to the victims and their families.
A dead person of whatever nationality has no control over what happens to his or her body.
The barbaric acts that were carried out on these unfortunate men were unforgivable, but by publishing explicit photos of these acts certain newspapers are stripping these bodies of any dignity they had left.
Apart from the lack of sensitivity and respect shown to the victims and their families - these fathers/ sons/ brothers/ husbands have been dragged through some sections of the media as they were dragged through the streets of Fallujah - I think that allowing this photo to appear on the front page sends out a dangerously confusing message to younger people - showing as it does children and adults jeering and laughing at a charred, dismembered corpse - i.e., that this is fun!
I can see the value of using shock tactics with regard to certain issues and the necessity of reporting the horrors of war, but this was shock tactics for the sake of shocking and bordering on "entertainment" in its motivation.
These papers have obviously ignored requests made to the world media to cover this event with dignity - God knows such a request shouldn't have to be made to decent people.
Fallujah may have become the "Graveyard of the Americans" but some sections of the press have, in this case, allowed themselves to become the desecrators of American Graves. - Yours in disgust,
TERESA O'DRISCOLL,
The Lough,
Cork.