The SAS Photos

Appalled is my reaction to the decisions of APN and Fairfax to run photos of SAS soldiers at work in Afghanistan, which show their faces.  The reported defence is:

Herald assistant editor John Roughan said the paper stood by the decision to use the picture which, he said, had real news value.

“The soldiers were in a public street, in a major city, visible to anybody, wearing their uniforms, carrying their guns, photographed as the New Zealand SAS.”

For fuck’s sake, they are not in Kabul to go to the movies. They are there because they take part in some of the most dangerous operations possible against the Taliban and associated forces.

By all means, run the photo – but why the hell didn’t you black out the face of the solider? There are some things more important than news value.