[WikiEN-l] On rights, NPOV and photos

Thu May 13 20:38:17 UTC 2004

Pedro Fortuny wrote:

>Hope we agree in some little minimalistic but certain human rights before 
>the project collapses,
>  
>
I guess I don't see how we can permit individuals to control what we 
display.  What if the family of the shot fighter in the famous Vietnam 
war photo alluded to earlier in this discussion objected to the public 
display of this image of his killing?  Should we remove it out of 
respect for human dignity, despite its historical importance?  I would 
argue we shouldn't.  The same goes for the Vietnamese girl covered with 
napalm---it should stay, even if her family objected.

Note that in this case the family hasn't actually objected.  They 
haven't asked people not to disseminate the video or reprint stills from 
it, or really said anything at all that would indicate they had a 
problem with the video itself.  Perhaps they do, but they haven't 
indicated so.  Not that I'd expect them to ask us at Wikipedia anything, 
but if they objected in general, they may have asked the major media 
organizations not to disseminate the footage or photographs from it, and 
as far as I can tell they haven't done so.

-Mark