For a long time, the flight of people from North Africa and the Middle East received little media attention or was largely ignored. Since late summer 2015, however, stories and images of refugees have dominated mass media coverage worldwide. The photograph that has caused the most excitement in recent weeks is indisputably that of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned off the island of Kos. This picture raises general questions about image politics and mechanisms of attention economy and forces a profound discourse about ethics in press photography. WestLicht and the Standard invited to an exciting panel discussion on 23.09., which stimulated more than 180 visitors to join in the discussion.

The panelists were:
Elias Bierdel, Journalist, borderline-europe - Menschenrechte ohne Grenzen e.V.

Fritz Hausjell, media scientist, Institute for Journalism, University of Vienna,

Regine Hendrich, photographer, DER STANDARD

Sahel Zarinfard, Journalist, Dossier

Moderation: Irene Brickner, DER STANDARD

Photos: Peter Jakadofsky/WestLicht