FEMA Wants No Photos of Dead

[Kire]

KATRINA'S AFTERMATH

FEMA Wants No Photos of Dead

From Reuters

NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. agency leading Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts said Tuesday that it does not want the news media to photograph the dead as they are recovered.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, heavily criticized for its slow response to the devastation caused by the hurricane, rejected journalists' requests to accompany rescue boats searching for storm victims.

An agency spokeswoman said space was needed on the rescue boats.

"We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media," the spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-photos7sep07,1,5455941.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

[ManiacJoe]

1. The lack of a reason seems odd.

In general such pictures do not add any useful data to the accompanying story. Plus publishing them is disrespectful to the family members.