CNN, along with other national and world news organizations are not running detailed images of cartoons from the Charlie Hebdo magazine in their coverage of the terrorist massacre at the small weekly French publication, with some editors questioning whether it is worth jeopardizing the safety of their staffs to print the images deemed offensive to Muslims.
CNN Senior Editorial Director Richard Griffiths, in a memo to staff members on Wednesday, said the network's platforms are encouraged to describe the cartoons verbally, but not show them, saying it is "key to understanding the nature of the attack on the magazine and the tension between free expression and respect for religion,"
reports Politico.
Video shots or stills of protests that show "Parisians holding up copies of the offensive cartoons, if shot wide, are also OK," Griffiths said, instructing news crews to "avoid close-ups of the cartoons that make them clearly legible."
And protest cartoons can be shown, but not those that include "detailed depictions of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons," Griffith's memo said.
CNN isn't the only news organization that has decided not to use the cartoons. NBC, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, and The Telegraph in London are among just some of the outlets that have said they will not use the cartoons that are said to have prompted terrorists to murder Charlie Hebdo staff and editors in Paris on Wednesday.
Many of the publications are opting to either blur or crop out photos of the covers, reports Politico.
But others, such as BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post, have decided to run the cartoons, with
The Huffington Post titling its post “These Are The Charlie Hebdo Cartoons That Terrorists Thought Were Worth Killing Over.”
The Associated Press has removed a photo of Charlie Hebdo editor Stéphane Charbonnier, one of the 12 killed by three Muslim terrorists from its archives,
reports The Washington Post. The photo shows Carbonnier posing with a full image of one of his magazine's cartoons. Another photo, taken following a 2011 firebombing at the publication, showed Carbonnier posing with a copy of his magazine and contained a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad being pushed around in a wheelchair by an Orthodox Jewish man.
“We’ve taken the view that we don’t want to publish hate speech or spectacles that offend, provoke or intimidate, or anything that desecrates religious symbols or angers people along religious or ethnic lines,” Santiago Lyon, director of photography for the Associated Press and a vice president at the news service, told the Post. “We don’t feel that’s useful.”
Post Executive Editor Martin Baron said his paper does not publish material "that is pointedly, deliberately, or needlessly offensive to members of religious groups” and would not be printing the cartoons.
But the Post's op-ed pages, under separate editorial management,
published one of the cartoons in its editions Thursday. The cartoon depicts Muhammad with a caption reading “100 Lashes If You Don’t Die Laughing," which reportedly inspired the 2011 firebombing.
"I think seeing the cover will help readers understand what this is all about,” said Fred Hiatt, the Post’s editorial editor.
Philip Corbett, associated managing editor for standards for The New York Times, said his paper will not publish material "deliberately intended to offend religious sensibilities," and that Times editors decided it would be enough to describe the cartoons.
Likewise, USA Today’s Editor in Chief, David Callaway, said his paper was “discussing” publication of the Muhammad cartoons, but decided late Wednesday to stick with cartoons that react to the attack.
In England, Stephen Pollard, who edits the
Jewish Chronicle, argued on Twitter that newspapers are right not to publish the cartoons, reports the Post.
“Easy to attack papers for not showing cartoons,” he tweeted. “But here’s my editor’s dilemma. Every principle I hold tells me to print them . . . what right do I have to risk the lives of my staff to make a point?”