Ethical Principles in the Portrayal of Death and Suffering: Finnish Photographers Covering the Russia–Ukraine War

Since the full-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the war has been a central interest of the Western media. Eye-witnessing is considered vital, but to what extent is what is seen on site ultimately conveyed to the public? Regarding graphic images, publishing decisions are based on reconciling news value, privacy protection, and audience protection by adhering to formal media policies, informal organisational culture, cultural conventions, audience expectations, and the proximity of the object. However, little is known about the enactment of ethical principles in crisis journalists’ work and the filtering of suffering through the journalistic process. This article investigates ethical decision-making in Finnish newsrooms from orientation to photographing and publication. Based on 26 interviews with photographers reporting from Ukraine during the Russia–Ukraine war, we ask how central ethical principles—the duty to inform and the ethics of care—are reconciled and enacted in the portrayal of death and suffering. Our analysis shows that ethical principles are weighed differently depending on the phase of the process and the genre of journalism (conflict/feature) and are compromised by practical limitations: time, money, safety, and access. While ethical responsibility is distributed in newsrooms, tensions exist regarding the portrayal of suffering. Several journalists interviewed for this study perceived the conventional limits of violence representation as being too tight, distorting the audience’s perception of war. In addition, potential bias in the portrayal of suffering in the media imaginary, resulting from limited access and the cultural and political proximity of the war, causes ethical uncertainty.