Why it's now time to stop using the photo of Aylan al-Kurdi's dead body

Images of Aylan al-Kurdi sent shockwaves around the world when they were published on Wednesday.

The sight of the three-year-old Syrian boy washed up in the surf of a Turkish beach has since led to a political and societal shift in how we are dealing with the refugee crisis.

Publication of the images was not one newspapers and other media outlets took lightly.

The Independent initially explained that it chose to publish the images because, "among the often glib words about the 'ongoing migrant crisis', it is all too easy to forget the reality of the desperate situation facing many refugees."

And as the Independent's editor Amol Rajan explained in his editorial on Saturday, "if you were shocked by Aylan al-Kurdi's picture, we did our job... the power to shock is a vital instrument of journalism, and therefore democracy".

However, now that Aylan, as well as his brother and mother who also died, have been laid to rest, now it must be time to let their family grieve.

Muhammad Lila, a journalist based in Canada where relatives of the Kurdi family live, explained that he had spoken to Aylan's aunt who has asked that people stop using the picture of his dead body and instead use pictures of her nephew in happier times.

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