Should news media stop publishing pictures of terrorists?

After the terror attack in Nice in July, various French news organisation decided to stop publishing the pictures and names of terrorist. The news organizations argue that they will no longer provide terrorists a platform to become famous after their attack and death through mass media (The Guardian).

The news organizations want to minimize the „posthumous glorification“ of the attackers by other (potential) members of the Islamic state or other terrorist organizations (The Guardian). Publishing pictures and names gives these men importance and makes them world famous. Many terrorism experts argue that potential world fame strongly intensifies their will to organize an attack with many victims and die as martyr (The Guardian). Among the news media that will no longer publish the pictures or names of terrorists are “Le Monde”, “BFM-TV”, “La Croix”, “Europe 1 Radio” and “France24 Television”.

Other news organizations, for example “Le Figaro”, “France Television” and “Nouvel Observateur”, argue against the ban of terrorist’s pictures and names. The executive director of the state run “France Television” for example says that it is the main duty of news media to inform the people and not to publish pictures and names means to withhold important information (The Guardian).

Further news organizations have chosen to decide on a case-by-case basis (The Guardian).

In my opinion, I think it is a very good and interesting idea to stop publishing pictures and names of terrorist if they are dead or in prison. By publishing their pictures and names, mass media “helps” terrorist become world famous. Of course, it is very important and the news media’s main duty to inform the people but a dead man’s picture or name does not contain any information.

Nevertheless, I think it is very important for the mass media to publish important and informative facts about the attack and the attacker. For example, the terrorist’s attack plans, how and when he did become radicalized, where he lived, where he was from, how it was possible for him to organize the attack, if he had helpers and if he was known to the police. These are the keys that help us understand what happened.

Last but not least, I think there is one huge exception: If the terrorist is still “on the run” and therefore may be planning further attacks (as it was the case after the terror attack in Berlin), I think the mass media should publish uncensored pictures, different names used by the attacker and every possible information in order to help find and identify the terrorist.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/27/french-media-to-stop-publishing-photos-and-names-of-terrorists (3.1.2017)