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A newspaper cover showing a man seconds before his death has been widely criticised. When tragedy strikes, do photographers - professional or otherwise - have a duty to intervene?

He looks up, helpless, as the train careers towards him. "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die," runs the front-page text on the New York Post. Below, in block capitals, is a single-word headline: "DOOMED." It's a shocking image, and the paper's splash has provoked an angry backlash.

The photographer who took the picture has faced particular opprobrium. Why, countless social media users have asked, didn't he help the victim instead of photographing his final moments? Once, this ethical conundrum would have been one for journalists and media studies classes alone. But in the age of social media, when a cameraphone invariably rests in a nearby pocket as tragedy strikes, it becomes a potential dilemma for everyone.

The photojournalist, freelancer R Umar Abbasi, insisted that he could not have reached the man - who was shoved by a stranger on to the track at 49th Street station near Times Square - and that he tried to use his camera flash to alert the train driver.

"I just started running. I had my camera up - it wasn't even set to the right settings - and I just kept shooting and flashing, hoping the train driver would see something and be able to stop," he said, in an article headlined My Snap Decision. It's not the first controversy over a powerful image of a tragic event.

What would  your be own decision?

 

We often hear and see these terrible events on TV. When human life depends on actions of other people,but people do not always help each other. I tnink it is wrong. In my opinion, surrounding people should help the people who need their help.