The Associated Press has shown images of the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria, but not ones with “such detail that would identify specific children in this abusive situation,” Tom Kent, deputy managing editor and standards editor, wrote on the AP’s blog Tuesday.
While [we] have given heavy coverage to this story overall, our practice on hostage images is to use the minimum necessary for news purposes while also making clear the hostages are being held under duress. We also limit to the essentials our quotations from hostage statements in such videos. We do not wish to be used for propaganda purposes.