This paper examines some of the issues concerning the ethics of photography and
photojournalism. It uses as an example a
front-page
photograph from the "Los Angeles Times" showing a British soldier directing Iraqi civilians to take cover from Iraqi fire, which turned out to be a fake, a digital composite created by photographer, Brian Walski ,using photo-altering software. It looks at how, although the Walski photograph may have been altered with good intentions to better convey the "essence" of the war in Iraq, Walski acted unethically and violated several tenets of
photojournalism. It argues how readers need to be able to trust that their photographs show what actually happened to form their own ideas and how breaching that trust only serves to make the public suspicious of all war reports, to the detriment of the entire news profession.