Sir, - On reading your edition of October 14th I came across a picture relating to the ongoing conflict in Kosovo. It depicted a refugee woman washing the body of a baby who had died of cold. It was a horrific picture, one I am sure was used to bring home the tragedy of war. There was no warning that the reader was going to see such a picture and to the best of my knowledge there is no age limit on persons allowed to read The Irish Times.
Youth Defence uses pictures of babies murdered by abortion on the streets of Ireland to bring home the tragedy of this violent act. Yet we are attacked by the media for using "shock tactics" to bring our message home.
Throughout the past 30 years of war and famine from Vietnam to Ethiopia, from Northern Ireland to Rwanda, the media have printed the most horrific pictures of human suffering and yet there is no demonisation of their use of their medium. Yet when Youth Defence through their medium, on the streets of Ireland, display pictures of aborted babies, they are attacked by a small but powerful clique of people who seem to want to establish themselves as the State authority on what can be publicly displayed.
If there is freedom of the press, surely there is the freedom of speech for the people. - Yours, etc., Maurice Colgan,
Youth Defence,
Mountjoy Square,
Dublin 1.