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New York Post subway photo row: a former editor remembers his own moral dilemma

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By Cameron Clarke, Editor

December 6, 2012 | 3 min read

The New York Post this week sparked outrage by publishing a photograph of a man taken moments before his death. The paper’s cover, showing the helpless Ki-Suck Han about to be killed by a subway train after being pushed onto the tracks, has been widely condemned on social media and prompted navel-gazing among journalists about whether they would choose to run such a sensitive image in their own publications.

The New York Post's haunting - and controversial - cover

I asked John McLellan, a former editor of the Scotsman, for his views on the issue. For McLellan, the Post’s cover brought to mind a similar moral dilemma that he faced during his time at the Edinburgh Evening News. As the paper’s deputy editor in 1997, he was responsible for publishing a picture of a homeless man on the parapet of Edinburgh's North Bridge who had jumped to his death.

“The man had been on the ledge for over three hours and threw his pet dog to its death before jumping himself and we carried a series of pictures on the inside pages as well,” McLellan recalled.

“We attracted considerable criticism but we also received several comments from people who supported our decision. A complaint to the Press Complaints Commission was not upheld.”

So what goes through your mind, as an editor, when a photographer places a picture showing someone’s final moments on your desk?

McLellan said: “Morally it is still a very difficult area for editors, and while there can be public interest arguments, it is undoubtedly harrowing for the relatives of the deceased to see a picture of a loved one of the front of a newspaper in such desperate circumstances.

“Had there been such a thing as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter then, I have no doubt the coverage would have been global and that would have created a major moral dilemma with which we did not have to contend.

“Would I do the same thing again? Probably not.”

One wonders whether the editors at the New York Post are thinking the same thing after the criticism they have faced this week.

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