NEW YORK Forced to defend what some critics consider its slow response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Tuesday it does not want the news media to take photographs of the dead as they are recovered from New Orleans.
FEMA, which is leading the rescue efforts, rejected requests from journalists to accompany rescue boats as they went out to search for storm victims, Reuters reported.
A FEMA spokeswoman told the wire service that space was needed on the rescue boats and assured Reuters that “the recovery of the victims is being treated with dignity and the utmost respect.”
“We have requested that no photographs of the deceased be made by the media,” the spokeswoman told Reuters via e-mail.
…”By and large, American television is the most sanitized television in the world,” he said. “They are less likely to show bodies, they are less likely to show graphic images of the dead than any television in the world.”
FEMA Bans Photos of the Dead
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Aaron Fulkerson 