In the press, the publication of photos taken from reports is regulated by a specific legal framework.
However, the freedom to inform seems to prevail over any other precept.
“The idea is not to fall into a form of sensationalism” warns Olivier Juszczak
The legal framework
In France, the publication of photos in the press must follow two major precepts: the right to respect for private life (article 9 of the Civil Code) and respect for the dignity of the person (article 16 of the Civil Code).
The newsrooms then have their own moral charters, authorizing certain clichés or not.
Me Zoé Vilain, associate lawyer at 1862, insists on one point: "There is, in France, the right to information, which prevails and which is very strong".
In other words, the freedom of the press reigns over the choices of the profession, and publications are then only a balance between the right to respect for private life and the right to information.
"In fact, a newspaper has the responsibility not to publish obscene and violent photos," adds Me Zoé Vilain.
If a cliché is deemed unnecessarily shocking, the public prosecutor can take legal action and it becomes a criminal offence.
The choice to publish or not a photo therefore responds to legal rules, but also and above all to a moral code whose limits are sometimes blurred.
Over the course of several judgments in cassation, these limits have been the subject of jurisprudential construction.
The trap of sensationalism
For the newsrooms, it is a question of not causing illegitimate pain and of not seeking the expression of gratuitous visual violence.
The photo editor of Liberation, Lionel Charrier explains: “That there are deaths in a war, it is unfortunately usual.
But there is not necessarily any need to inform through images of the atrocity of these wars.
[…] The proliferation of images of horror does not necessarily advance things.
".
After the Boutcha massacre, newsrooms had to choose what to show their readership.
Olivier Juszczak, journalist responsible for the photo at 20 Minutes is very cautious.
A few days ago, he chose to publish a photo that shows a close-up of hands, bound by a rope.
"No need to show more, we suspect that the person is dead", he said before adding "the idea is not to fall into a form of sensationalism".
And sometimes, however, “sensational” photos can have the effect of an electroshock and help to inform more widely.
Everyone remembers this child's body stranded on the sand of a Tunisian beach.
In 2015, this made it possible to talk about a worrying migratory and humanitarian situation in Syria.
The duty to inform above all
“At Liberation, the image has an important place.
“It happens then that Lionel Charrier opts in front page for a difficult photo.
This choice is justified according to him since there is something to denounce.
“There are times when, indeed, showing bodies is a necessity.
We do that when really there is a duty to inform.
".
Editorial choices are first made on the basis of a queen rule: the freedom to inform.
Albert Londres also referred to it by saying: “Our job is not to please, nor to do harm, it is to take a pen into the wound”.
Lionel Charrier subscribes to this vision of journalism.
“I think you have to show things.
Because one can especially reproach us for hiding.
[…] Our duty is to inform and we would be more angry if we had hidden things.
".
The publication of a photo is therefore the subject of a meticulous and conscious editorial choice;
during which the question of the dignity of the dead and the living is constantly raised.
And if some publications can have the effect of a knife in the wound, we must not forget that there is always a feather, behind, to contextualize.
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