New Delhi: A graphic picture of a Salvadoran father and young daughter who drowned while attempting to cross the border between Mexico and the US has given an added emotional ring to the debate on undocumented migrants. Moreover, it has also sparked an international conversation about human dignity and media ethics.The image depicts Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria lying face down in water after being washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande. His daughter was partially tucked in Ramírez’s black shirt and her arm was slung around his neck in an effort to keep the two together.Ramírez, along with his wife, Tania Vanessa Ávalos, and daughter trekked from El Salvador to escape poverty and build a life, Ramírez’s mother Rosa told the Associated Press.The family secured a humanitarian visa in Mexico and spent approximately two months in a migrant camp. Ramírez decided to swim across the river which separates Mexico and its northern neighbour after the family couldn’t request asylum in the US, according to reporting by La Jornada journalist Julia Le Duc.The photo, taken in Mexico’s Matamoros by Le Duc, illustrates the dire and desperate migration situation at the border.AP picked up the photo and it was carried by a number of news outlets. From local to international news, the image was widely circulated across print, broadcast and social media and reached millions of people. The New York Times ran the photo on its front page.Often, news organisations don’t publish graphic images of those who have passed away.The Wire’s standard is to refrain from publishing violent or graphic images of death. If a red-flagged image is imperative to a story, then the editors discuss the best way to handle it. The Wire decided that publishing the photo of Ramírez and Valeria was important, a judgment call that was in line with other media platforms.The photo is compelling and has an inherent news value due to its true portrayal of reality at the border. But just because an image has news value and news organisations can publish the photo, should they?Also read: What Happens to Journalistic Ethics When the News Site is a Photo StudioIt’s a complicated question.Unlike other industries that may be regulated by the government or require a license to conduct their work, journalism is largely self-regulated.Some newsrooms and journalists may follow certain professional norms and standards, like the Society of Professional Journalists’ (SPJ) code of ethics in the US or the Press Council of India guidelines.However, the industry doesn’t have a governing agency with teeth that can punish organisations or journalists that act unethically. So at the end of the day, organisations aren’t required to abide by certain ethics. Often, the industry relies on the audience to punish such organisations through public outrage or loss of readership.This industry-wide lack of standardised ethics can lead to heated debates about ethics when a graphic but newsworthy image begins circulating, especially in a globally competitive environment.Shocking images that shine a light on the horrors of those caught in “geopolitical chaos” have the “power to galvanise the public,” argues Kelly McBride, vice-president of Poynter.Over the past few decades, a handful of graphic photos published by news organisations have had a role in changing the course of history. These photos are iconic and often emblematic of their time period.McBride points to the image of the starving Sudanese child curled over on herself while a vulture looks on over her shoulder. The shocking image alerted the world to the gravity of the widespread famine in 1993.Another powerful photo was of a young naked girl, Kim Phúc, running along with other children after the US-backed South Vietnamese air force accidentally dropped napalm on the village northwest of Saigon. Nick Ut’s image, along with an image of an execution on the streets in Saigon and an image of a Buddhist monk immolating himself, opened the eyes of the US and the world to the horrors being committed as a result of the Vietnam War.Also read: How Photography Shaped Narratives of Vietnam WarSome photos were turning points in history, others have come to represent the sociopolitical landscape of an era. David Jackson’s 1955 photo of Emmett Till’s open casket showing his brutalised face stands as a testament to the hate festering in the segregated US south.Turkish photographer Nilufer Demir’s 2015 image of Aylan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Greece, helped rewrite the European narrative of refugees attempting to flee war zones.Photos like these are often horrifying. But the truth they capture, especially when they run counter to the narrative of the political establishment, is powerful.Yet, the SPJ code of ethics calls on journalists to minimise harm to sources and to the audience.The decision to publish a graphic photo isn’t black and white. Nor is the decision on how to share it. A news organisation’s editors often will have to consider a variety of factors prior to publishing.The New York Times says it considers factors “including the newsworthiness of the event; how crucial the photo is to telling the story; the likely impact on loved ones, survivors and the community affected; and whether our judgment would be the same regardless of who the victims were or where the events occurred.”In terms of the photo with Ramírez and his daughter, AP’s vice president for standards argued that the picture was “timely and powerful” and the two together were “especially poignant” and “very rarely do we get a photo that tells the story so well.”Not everyone agrees.The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) called the photo “exploitative and dehumanising.”The photo could have a potential positive impact. But as the NAHJ pointed out, it could also harm those close to the subjects of the image as well as those in the Latino community.NAHJ wasn’t the only one feeling this way. An opinion piece in Latin media outlet Remezcla argued that it shouldn’t take a shocking and graphic photo for people to become sympathetic to those impacted by the migration crisis.Across social media, some readers accused news organisations of publishing the shocking image for clicks they would generate while others discussed the lack of warning accompanying the picture.Also read: CNN’s Punishment of Refugee-Defending Journalist Highlights Media AbdicationIt’s common practice to blur a photo when it is graphic. The audience can still see the image but have to consent by clicking on the image.However, this precaution wasn’t followed when AP tweeted the photo. The agency said this was due to the way the photo appeared in the web story linked in the tweet.On top of those calling out the AP’s handling of the photo, there is a concern, McBride points out, that the audience could be “desensitized to this type of imagery.” It’s hard to avoid it even if you wanted to with so many news organisations publishing the same image.But at the same time, should people be allowed to ignore an image like this?Former AP reporter Anthony Breznican pointed out on Twitter that after Nick Ut took the iconic photo of Kim Phuc being burned by napalm, he made sure he got her to safety – and medical help.When we as the public are confronted with these photos, “We have to face the horror and find a solution. Only then do we earn the right to look away,” Breznican wrote.Rosemary Belson is an intern at The Wire.