Blurring Protestor's Faces

Kayla McLeod 

kayre312@gmail.com

 

 

Photojournalism is a form of art in certain ways. Some of the best pictures to supplement articles are the ones with emotions and feelings behind them. 

In connection with this, some of the most famous photos from the Black Lives Matter protests are the ones showing protesters' faces -- ones that are filled with emotion. 

However, this comes with the possible dilemma of going against the subject's preferences. There could be countless situations where someone would not want their photo to be published. Currently, there is some debate that perhaps blurring protesters faces is the best way to avoid this. This has to be taken into account along with SPJ's code of ethics. 

SPJ explicitly states that it's a journalist's responsibility to seek the truth and report it. So with these standards, blurring faces would be not reporting the truth. Technically, these people did go out in a public place to protest, therefore publishing their faces should not be a problem. 

Picture source: IndieWire

However, with the current divide in the country, a published photo like this can alter someone's life. They could be looked down upon in their community or even lose their job. And SPJ's code of ethics explicitly states that it is a journalist's job to minimize harm for individuals. 

Some people, however, in the journalist world are still very strongly against blurring photos of protesters. They feel as if blurring the photos is almost the same as altering history, and the practice is anti-human. 

So what does a photojournalist do in this situation? While saving a possibly bad situation, they may be sacrificing a perfect picture. 

Truly, it's up to the individual journalist. There are middle grounds, like finding the protester after the photo is taken and asking if it would be okay to publish. But if this isn't done, it has to be decided if the art is worth it.