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The editorial decisions of newspapers are made up against deadlines and yesterday’s front pages revealed the different conclusions editors had come to. Some papers had been criticised recently for showing prominent pictures of Mick Jagger soon after he had learned of the death of his partner and so yesterday, the decision to publish strong pictures of the Malaysian aircraft families overtaken by grief must have been difficult. On one page in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, the desperate faces of Egyptian families, shocked at the death sentence handed out to 529 people were next to the grieving relatives of 107 people who died in a boat accident on the Ugandan Congo border. From Uganda to Egypt to Malaysia to the UK grief can connect us as human beings across generations and cultures. But what are the ethics of watching this grief, observing it, publishing it? For us to see these pictures, we rely on a series of intermediaries holding the camera steady, taking the close up and not walking away. On this programme yesterday we heard an interview with a boy whose father was killed while on active service with the British army. He was talking about appearing in a ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ documentary about coping with grief that has been shown in schools around the country. He said he didn’t mind being asked about his father’s death on camera because the interest of other people showed that they cared. I have sometimes found myself in tears watching a report from far away, seeing the anguish of people whose names I will never know but whose distress is heard in my living room, whose crying fills my house. Yesterday was the Christian feast of the Annunciation; the moment a young woman from Nazareth in Galilee said yes to the vocation that would bring her immense grief. This same woman, Mary, is shown in countless pictures and sculptures as an uncomforted mother, cradling the body of her dead son. Along with Mary Magdalene and other women in the gospel stories, she remained with Christ as he died, steadying her gaze on the suffering of God. So what are the ethics of watching? Perhaps it depends on the effect. Seeing this grief can serve to numb us, it is part of what fatigues us and separates us further from one another. But it can also stir us into action, to send an email, to raise money, to protest, to pray, to let someone know that they are not alone. For Christians, the suffering of Christ watched by the women was not the last word, overwhelming as it was. For all those who will be plunged into grief by the as yet unknown events of today, may it not, in the end, be the last word either.