Sir, – The report by your Paris correspondent Lara Marlowe (World News, August 2nd) contains the photographs of the two killers of the French priest Fr Jacques Hamel whose throat they slit while he was celebrating Mass. The message of these murderers exhorting “all Muslim brothers to strike this country [France] and strike the [anti-Isis] coalition” is published in this report.
Surely this type of publicity is precisely what those who are behind such attacks want. Is this not why such gruesome methods are used to sensationalise their murders? Those who manipulate these young men to carry out such crimes can point to the worldwide publicity gained from this murder, not only for their cause but also for the two murderers, “martyrs” whose publicised names and images can now be used to inspire future disillusioned and impressionable individuals to commit “spectacular” crimes.
The international media must come to terms with the fact that the “oxygen of publicity” they provide is a powerful motivating factor for those who plan and carry out such crimes. While reporting events is a vital function, the media also has a clear responsibility not to help to promote either the cause or the personalities of those who carry out these brutal attacks.
Surely it is time for responsible editorial policy to avoid providing the perpetrators of these crimes this type of publicity for themselves and their cause.
– Yours, etc,
FRANK POWELL
Monkstown,
Co Dublin.