Nearly 20,000 Palestinian refugees have been besieged in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria since last July, caught between Syrian government forces and rebel fighters. This river of humanity that lies between banks of burnt-out buildings is slowly flowing towards a United Nations food distribution point.
The UN fights its way through to the camp every day and has distributed 7,000 food parcels in the past month, but that is not nearly enough. More than 80 people have died of starvation. Others have died trying to reach the most unsuitable food: CNN reported this week that three people were shot by snipers as they made their way to an open field to eat the grass.
Yesterday the UN agency for Palestinian refugees released this Associated Press to try to give the world a clue about the scale of deprivation caused by years of civil war. Nearly 50,000 more are besieged in Homs and in the north near Aleppo.
Even in February, this is going to be a strong candidate for picture of the year - and you can bet that there will soon be people claiming that it is a fake - so it is interesting to see how the papers treated it.
The UN fights its way through to the camp every day and has distributed 7,000 food parcels in the past month, but that is not nearly enough. More than 80 people have died of starvation. Others have died trying to reach the most unsuitable food: CNN reported this week that three people were shot by snipers as they made their way to an open field to eat the grass.
Yesterday the UN agency for Palestinian refugees released this Associated Press to try to give the world a clue about the scale of deprivation caused by years of civil war. Nearly 50,000 more are besieged in Homs and in the north near Aleppo.
Even in February, this is going to be a strong candidate for picture of the year - and you can bet that there will soon be people claiming that it is a fake - so it is interesting to see how the papers treated it.
The Guardian recognised the importance of the photograph, giving it a third of the front - and putting it above the titlepiece. The story that belonged with it was, however, on page 20. This was particularly uncomfortable, even with the little 'reminder' inset picture, since the copy was written as a caption story and stylish head completed the package. It would work only if the reader went directly to page 22 from the front.
This was a shame because in going for what most would regard as maximum possible impact, the presentation failed. The Guardian is the one paper with a centre spread that is always given over to a photograph and today that fell on 18 and 19 - the page before the Syrian copy.
This was a shame because in going for what most would regard as maximum possible impact, the presentation failed. The Guardian is the one paper with a centre spread that is always given over to a photograph and today that fell on 18 and 19 - the page before the Syrian copy.
 | Supposing the Indian holy man preparing for Shivaratri had been displaced from the spread, how could the Guardian give the Syrian photograph proper projection front and inside? Perhaps by taking a detail as a solo puff, something like the mocked up version on the left. The extra space could either be used to start the Syrian copy on the front, to run the splash longer complete with the stabbed woman inquest that sparked the splash, or even to use pictures of the Woolwich killers. |
The Times made it the central picture on its opening World spread, leading on the Ukraine. There is a logic to this. The copy sits with the picture and the more important story of the day takes precedence. It would have been nice if the photograph could have been given another column to the right,but it is clear that the paper appreciated that it was an important picture.
| With Russia on the front and a forward spread, the Independent had scope to make something of the refugees if it wishes. But it preferred a file picture of the Al Aqsa mosque for the world front and a whale graveyard. It did, at least run it across a spread - but it feels like a space-filler. just another picture with a skinny caption to break up some commentary, news from Turkey and a rather nice, but rather too long, tale about a couple |   |
who found $10m of gold coins while walking their dog. The i also put it across a spread, though heaven knows why. It splits the picture unnecessarily and overlays copy on it to boot. The Mirror gave the photograph most of the top of page 33, again sticking the caption in a box on top of it, while the Telegraph put it at the bottom of its final foreign page above the puzzles. The Express, Star and Sun didn't trouble with it at all.
  | And finally, along came the Mail, once again showing its supremacy in the world of presentation. Having seen the Guardian, Gameoldgirl was surprised to see this tweet from a former colleague: |
But he was right. Full depth across two pages, with just a single column of text to explain what's going on, the picture is given maximum impact. Robert Hardman's copy has a few too many adverbs. But this is an extraordinary photograph showing what life is like today for vast numbers of the inhabitants of what should be a modern city. And in this instance it isn't the words that matter.
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