UnEmbeded!

Zoriah, who was an embeded photojournalist in Iraq, blogs:

A few hours after posting my story on the suicide bombing in Anbar Province, I was woken up by a young marine who took me to receive a phone call.  A high ranking Public Affairs Officer told me that they were requesting that I remove my blog post immediately.  I asked on what grounds, as media rules state that wounded and killed soldiers may be portrayed in images as long as their name tags and identifiable features are not shown.  I made very sure my images followed those guidelines, and questioned a large number of soldiers on base to see if they could find anything at all that would identify the dead.  I did this primarily out of respect for the families.

I truly labored with the decision to post these images and I still do.  But in my heart of hearts I know that people need to see and feel the reality of this horrible situation.  How can things change if all that comes out of Iraq are sanitized, white-washed images of war designed for mainstream media outlets who focus on making money, not on the quality and truth in what they report?

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