Was showing drowned migrants justified?

The photo is unforgettable.

A man and a young child lie face down in shallow water on Mexico’s side of the Rio Grande. The child’s head is tucked inside the man’s black Tshirt. A thin right arm is draped over the man’s neck. Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, 25, and his 23monthold daughter Angie Valeria, migrants from El Salvador, drowned trying to get across the river to Texas.

The photo was taken on June 24 by journalist Julia Le Duc for the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. Soon it appeared on social media and was distributed to news outlets worldwide by The Associated Press.

Some daily newspapers, including The New York Times and Hearst Connecticut Media, put the photo on Page 1. Some ran it inside. Others did not publish it.

Viewers saw it on cable news channels, broadcast TV newscasts and news websites, usually after being warned that the image might be disturbing.

Were newspaper editors and other media gatekeepers right or wrong to go public with the photo of the two drowned migrants?

I think they were right and will say why after quoting others.

The AP reported that Martinez wanted to escape poverty in El Salvador. Arriving at Matamoros near the U.S. border, he was told that he and his family would have to wait for weeks in a Mexican detention center before they could present themselves to U.S. authorities and request asylum.

So Martinez swam across the Rio Grande with his daughter and set her on the bank. When he started back for his wife Tania Vanessa Avalos, little Valeria jumped back into the water. Martinez returned and grabbed her. Then the current swept them away.

In fiscal year 2018, 283 migrant deaths were recorded at the Southwest border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists called the photo a “shocking image” that is “exploitative” and “detrimental to the immigrant community.”

But others contend that the photo will make the public more sympathetic to those seeking a better life by leaving their home country.

Fernando Garcia, director of the Border Network for Human Rights, told Time magazine it reminded him of the iconic 2015 photo showing a drowned 3yearold boy washed up on a beach after an inflatable boat full of Syrian migrants capsized in the Mediterranean.

In a report to readers, The New York Times said at least a dozen of its editors discussed the image.

Beth Flynn, deputy photo editor, said the editors decided to run the photo because it shows what is happening on the border between the U.S. and Mexico.

“It’s important for our readers to see and understand that,” she said.

I agree with her. If a news organizations decides to run a photo of dead people, there better be a good reason. Such an image is indeed disturbing.

In this case, there was a good reason — to show what is happening on the border.