Which precedents are you thinking of?
During WWII, I believe that up until Tarawa that we didn't allow war correspondents to freely publish pictures of the dead, but I believe that from Tarawa onward that we allowed such pictures of dead soldiers.
Otherwise, I cannot think of any such restriction on the press, but the history of journalistic photography is not a part of history that I spend a lot of time on, so perhaps such restrictions were more common than I thought?
Here is a reference of the write-up on the 1900 Storm and how persons were treated who showed disrespect to the dead.
http://www.centropic.com/Portfolio/Samples/Hurricane.asp
This has a quote from an article published in the Dallas News on September 14, 1900.
This was a time before being P.C. was popular. When it better to BE CORRECT -- than it was to be POLITICALLY CORRECT! 'nuf said