I think I’m even less of a free speech absolutist than you, but you raise some very good points.

The situation is incredibly complicated, which is why I’m picking everything apart to reduce the ambiguity of what they did as much as possible. It’s why I’m trying to figure out their intent at the time as well. These photographers didn’t document what happened in order to provide clear evidence of the crimes. They took pictures they thought would look good on a front page. Then they sold those images to news outlets. This means they didn’t consider whether or not they should notify anyone, or do the moral calculus to try to figure out if they could prevent it or even small acts like hiding a single child. If they did that, or even just published all their images for free the day after it would imply they understood that what happened was not acceptable.

Bottom line is that line is extremely fuzzy and hidden in the fog of war, but I think they crossed it.