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In contrasting circumstances the past week brought attention again to the media's role in keeping the public informed.Trinidad saw the clumsy arrest of a prime-time television personality in an industry pushing edginess and innovation. In the US, a Trinidad-born newspaper editor defended a decision to publish two photos in defiance of the Pentagon.

Both cases highlight the challenge of staying within the law, taste and decency while keeping the public informed.

In Los Angeles Davan Maharaj, the former Express journalist, explained the Los Angeles Times' decision to publish two of 18 particularly graphic photographs. Both showed that a unit of the US military's 82nd Airborne Division posed with body parts, the remains of Afghan bombers.

By comparison the local arrest was in respect of material allegedly broadcast in breach of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA). The October 2011 broadcast was in the usual sensational manner of the prime-time programme styled as a watch on crime and crime-fighting. But unlike the publication of the photos by the Times which involved an editorial judgment of the right of the public to be informed, the local broadcast is being impugned as a breach of the SOA which carries criminal liability.

According to Maharaj, the Times felt that the public interest was served by publishing a limited, but representative sample of the photos, along with a story explaining the circumstances under which they were taken. The newspaper believed the photos provided by a member of the military unit "reflected dysfunction, indiscipline and a breakdown in leadership that compromised the safety of the troops." And the newspaper believed the public had a right to be informed.

It is clear that both cases are about the modern technology-driven and profit-centred media enterprise; the push to edginess and innovation and the challenge of keeping all of it within the law, taste and decency.