(Credit: Washington Post, screenshot)

Before publishing a photograph of “a Tibetan exile who set himself afire in New Delhi to protest Chinese rule in Tibet,” four editors from the Washington Post “reviewed” and determined the photo should be published.

As the Washington Post’s public editor Patrick Pexton reported, readers complained over the photo, but Post national and foreign photo editor Robert Miller explained that it was the “least graphic of the images” of the photographer’s “sequence.”

Miller told Pexton that the editors concluded that “the photo was compelling and appropriate for the story, which was heavily focused on the recent self-immolations by Tibetans. The image transcends the moment. It is a horrible scene that reflects the reality that 33 people have set themselves on fire in protest of what many Tibetans see as a systematic attempt by the Chinese government to destroy their culture, silence their voices, and erase their identity.”

See the photo here.