Why photographs of dead in Nairobi terror attack failed journalism – and dishonoured victims

An article by the New York Times on the Riverside terrorist attacks in Nairobi has provoked fury and consternation in Kenya.

The article features a photograph by AP credited to the photographer Khalil Senusi showing bodies of victims of the attack slumped on chairs and covered in blood. A similar photograph has also been used by UK’s Daily Mail online with faces of the victims pixelated.

Public criticism was initially directed at the author of the article, Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, who according to her Twitter handle, is the newspaper’s in-coming bureau chief for East Africa. She dismissed the criticism telling readers to direct their anger to the newspaper’s photo department, claiming that she didn’t have a say in the choice of photos that go with her articles.