German newspaper prints edition without pictures to protest backlash for publishing Aylan Kurdi's photo

After Germany’s best-selling newspaper Bild received criticism for publishing images of the body of three-year-old toddler Aylan Kurdi, who drowned while trying to reach Greece, Bild on Tuesday decided to remove all pictured from its print edition and website. This decision was taken by Bild less than a week after the newspaper dedicated its whole back page to the disturbing image of Kurdi lying face down on a beach in Bodrum, according to The Guardian. It was accompanied with a plea for action from Europe. [caption id=“attachment_2427824” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image Courtesy: @KaiDiekmann/Twitter[/caption] A statement published on the Bild website also compared the photo of Kurdi to images of the “Napalm-girl” in Vietnam, “who ran screaming and naked through the streets, the skin burned on her little body” and the Rwanda pictures of 1994 which showed mutilated bodies. In the statement, the paper’s editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt said that these images are “representatives of the indisputable role that these harrowing pictures have in our society reminding us just who we really are, visualising what human beings are capable of. Through them, we are being warned that each and every civilisation can collapse within an instance, that people open the doors to hell if we look away.” Reichelt also said in the statement that it was not the photograph which was undignified but the situation which created the photograph which was undignified and caused us pain. He said that, “We have no right to take the easy route, to look away when injustice happens. We must force ourselves to look.” On 2 September, the world was shocked as photograph of the tiny body of three-year old Aylan Kurdi washed up in the Aegean resort of Bodrum swept social media, spawning sympathy and outrage at the perceived inaction of developed nations in helping refugees. His five-year-old brother Galip and mother Rehan, 35, had also died after their boat capsized while trying to reach the Greek island of Kos. His father, Abdullah, had been found semi-conscious and taken to hospital near Bodrum, according to Turkey’s Sabah newspaper. (With inputs from Reuters)