Photojournalist Banned by Marines in Iraq

Posted By Blackfive

Zoriah Miller was an embedded blogger.  He's a photojournalist who has posted a photo of Marine KIA and has earned the ire of the Marines in Iraq.  He blogs at Zoriah.net. 

From the Ventura County Star:

BAGHDAD — It's a disturbing picture.

The dead Marine is lying on his back, his face damaged beyond recognition because of the blast.

But for photojournalist and blogger Zoriah Miller, 32, it was important to capture the daily toll of war in Iraq.

"I just feel this war has become so sanitized that it was important to show," said Zoriah, who prefers to go by his first name. "My only discomfort is the idea that the family could accidentally stumble on it."

To help avoid that, he posted warnings on his online blog, Zoriah.net, about the graphic content of the photo and referred to it off the first page of his site, meaning visitors have to do some click-throughs to access it. The photo is included with others from a suicide bombing that occurred June 26 in the town of Karmah, near Fallujah in Anbar province.

The Marine commanders who saw the photograph were not happy, saying it violated a "trust" between the military and journalists.

Zoriah was immediately "disembedded" from a Marine unit and barred from working with the military in Anbar....

Zoriah Miller has a different story saying that he did not publish the photo until after the official notice was released.  He discusses this issue in detail on his blog.  This seems to be the problem:

...It seemed insane to me that the Marines would embed a war photographer and then be upset when photographs were taken of war...

I think that Zoriah doesn't understand why a photo of a Marine killed in Iraq would bother the Marine Corps.  He is appealing the Marine's barment from embedding.  More at his blog.

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Photojournalist Banned by Marines in Iraq

Zoriah Miller was an embedded blogger.  He's a photojournalist who has posted a photo of Marine KIA and has earned the ire of the Marines in Iraq.  He blogs at Zoriah.net. 

From the Ventura County Star:

BAGHDAD — It's a disturbing picture.

The dead Marine is lying on his back, his face damaged beyond recognition because of the blast.

But for photojournalist and blogger Zoriah Miller, 32, it was important to capture the daily toll of war in Iraq.

"I just feel this war has become so sanitized that it was important to show," said Zoriah, who prefers to go by his first name. "My only discomfort is the idea that the family could accidentally stumble on it."

To help avoid that, he posted warnings on his online blog, Zoriah.net, about the graphic content of the photo and referred to it off the first page of his site, meaning visitors have to do some click-throughs to access it. The photo is included with others from a suicide bombing that occurred June 26 in the town of Karmah, near Fallujah in Anbar province.

The Marine commanders who saw the photograph were not happy, saying it violated a "trust" between the military and journalists.

Zoriah was immediately "disembedded" from a Marine unit and barred from working with the military in Anbar....

Zoriah Miller has a different story saying that he did not publish the photo until after the official notice was released.  He discusses this issue in detail on his blog.  This seems to be the problem:

...It seemed insane to me that the Marines would embed a war photographer and then be upset when photographs were taken of war...

I think that Zoriah doesn't understand why a photo of a Marine killed in Iraq would bother the Marine Corps.  He is appealing the Marine's barment from embedding.  More at his blog.

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