Madam, - I can understand that many readers may have been disturbed and upset by last Thursday's photograph of five men about to be hung in Iran, but John Cullen's letter (August 4th) goes far beyond reasoned criticism. It is not chauvinist and dehumanising to show human suffering where it occurs. We don't see "white and Christian" men publicly executed in this manner because this doesn't happen in Western countries.
All across the world atrocities are committed against human life and dignity, and we cannot hope to put an end to this if we remain ignorant of it. The report accompanying the image in question reported that "at least 124" people have been put to death in Iran this year for crimes as trivial as "adultery" and "apostasy". Even the stoning to death of convicts is permitted under Iranian law. Perhaps Mr Cullen's ire could be more productively directed.
Mr Cullen even objects to pictures of "starving black babies". Would so much money have been raised in recent years for the victims of drought and famine if we had not seen for ourselves the true nature of their suffering?
Yes, these images can be distressing but it is irresponsible to suggest that they ought not be shown for fear of upsetting some people. We should be upset. More importantly we should insist that our leaders do all they can to help our fellow human beings, irrespective of race. - Yours, etc,
DAVID BEATTY, Knocklyon, Dublin 16.
Madam, - John Cullen (August 4th) claims that "somehow it has seeped into our collective mindset that it is normal and acceptable to broadcast pictures of starving black babies, dead or dying Arabs, and Middle Eastern men about to be executed". The tragedy is that it is normal for these things to happen, and it would be unacceptable not to broadcast pictures of them.
What Mr Cullen seems to be advocating is a deliberate ignorance of the brutality of the world.
Notice how neither his nor Joseph O'Callaghan's letter regarding the same image of five Iranian men about to be hung express outrage at the fact that such a thing should happen; instead there is merely objection that we should be privy to photographs of it.
Mr Cullen's claim that the Irish media disproportionately publish images of death and capital punishment taking place in non-Christian countries does not stand up to scrutiny when both the front page of the Weekend Review and the Editorial of the very issue in which his letter is published deal with Denis Staunton witnessing the execution of a prisoner in Alabama.
It is, in fact, shirking from displaying images of death and suffering that "perpetuates the dehumanising of the vast majority of humanity". I applaud The Irish Timesfor its lack of squeamishness. - Yours, etc,
DONAL SMITH, Woodbine Park, Raheny, Dublin 5.
