As Israeli bombs rain down on Lebanon in reply to Hizbollah's deadly rockets, a well-worn but always valid topic comes to the fore again: is it ever right to show the true reality of war?
A great deal of debate goes on in the office about what pictures should be included from the hundreds of disturbing images that brave photographers are currently sending from the Middle East every day. We are sensitive not only to the reaction of our readers, but also to the dignity of the victims.
But the current debate is thrown into sharper relief by the recent furore over an Italian magazine's inclusion of pictures of the dying Princess Diana. Its distribution was banned here in the UK.
A reader wrote asking: 'Why it is not all right to show a picture of the dying Princess Diana but it is fine for The Observer to show a picture of a dead young girl in Lebanon? (page 2, 16 July). I don't want to see either.'
The picture showed the wreckage of a truck and a car which had sustained a direct hit. Taken from a distance, it showed five bodies, one child among them. They were members of two families. Another picture, alongside, showed the body of a dead Lebanese girl. A total of eight children had died in the horrendous attack.
Some editors felt that it might be seen as a gratuitous use of such a painful image. That argument holds water with the Diana picture: publishing it would be purely gratuitous as it serves no purpose in conveying the story.
This, however is different. Many staff believed the picture should have been placed on the front page to drive home the message that this conflict is having a terrible toll on civilians, particularly children.
Every day, our picture desk sees images that it would not dream of publishing - not because they show the graphic reality of war, but because they violate the dignity of the victim. Against that, we have a duty to tell the story faithfully, which can mean publishing disturbing pictures.
Just how disturbing is the core of the debate. This particular reader doesn't want to see any of them. Others feel that our sensitivity is a form of censorship. What do you think?
